4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 27, 1995 (ihe Ahrbitan itrnlg JORDAIN STANCIL 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the 1 1 MICHAEL ROSENBERG Editor in Chief JULIE BECKER JAMES M. NASH University of Michigan i Editorial Page Editors Unleis otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All ! other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. Wrigt for the job MSA inconsistent in naming new city T he good news for the Michigan Student detail of the City Charter, he Assembly is that, in the words of Vice taint of his actions. President Sam Goodstein, new city liaison The assembly decided last Andrew Wright is "clearly the best person person who represents Univers for the job." The bad news for University their city must be someone who students is that their elected representatives External Relations Committe no longer consider integrity to be an impor- Rose's statement that she "di( tant job qualification. (Wright's former wrongdoing) MSA members last weekratified Andrew ing on this position" is laugha Wright, an LSA representative, as the new ment can be interpreted in tw( student liaison to the city of Ann Arbor. Last Rose does not feel that the ethi( January the assembly voted 18-9, with six representative are significantc abstentions, to remove Wright from the very the position of city liaison to b sameposition as well as from his position as cant that it does not matter wh( ExtenalRelations Committee chair. Wright's The former position is ur removal came after the propriety and ethics person's morality affects the d of a number of his actions were called into she makes hundreds of timesf question.Wright'smost conspicuous offense dents should be able to trust was his connection to $796 that was anony- representatives to distinguish mously donated to MSA last winter. Al- and wrong. The latter possibil though it was never proven that Wright made position is insignificant - W the donation, his retrieval of the funds after disproved through his enthusi the assembly refused to accept tem made year. The city liaison represen him an accomplice, at the very leait. Wright's variety of ways, from insulati involvement with the money levo a formal and sororities from unfair zoni MSA. condemnation that strongly urged his to ensuring adequate off-caml resignation. Yet eight months later, he is MSA representatives hav back-almost where he began. themselves and let down their< Far more disturbing than Wright's actual promoting Wright to city l offenses is the hypocrisy and superficiality Wright may indeed be the mos MSA demonstrated in reinstating him. MSA fled, there are surely other M representatives agree that Wright has more who could learn to perform th knowledge about City Hall than any other Wright did - MSA need onl potential liason, and there is little debate that harder. The 180-degree rever before his dismissal he performed his job shows the assembly suffers fro well. But didn't everyone know these same disease known as "lack of con things last year when they called for his can only hope student voters d resignation? Even if Wright knew every last same disease before the next N liaison still bears the t year that the sity students to can be trusted. e Chair Fiona Idn't think that ) had any bear- ble. The state- o ways: Either cs of an elected or she believes e so insignifi- o fills the post. nacceptable; a decisions he or each day. Stu- t their elected between right lity - that the iright himself astic work last ts students in a ng fraternities ng regulations pus lighting. e embarrassed constituents in iaison. While t visibly quali- ISA members e job as well as ly look a little sal on Wright )m the political nviction." One don't catch the MSA elections. 1!A 4.4ypical dy/) he Amerftan zv A s a senior, I get the chance to talk to a lot office buildings in America is, in the light of of other seniors, and there seems to be eternity, of virtually no consequence what- a general inability among all of us to think of soever. And at the end of the day everyone anything good to do next year. All of us goes home and watches the news and gets agree that it would be bad to get ajob or even downright pissed off about the sheer idiocy do anything that might lead to a job, like go of Bill Clinton except they realize that in- to law school. This is because, as the heady stead of just being an idiot what he's really days of college draw to a close, we have doing is Committing an Assault on their become aware, either through instinct or Rights. Then they sit around. summer work experience, that the working The next day, The Workforce goes back world is not a very thought-provoking place. to the same place they were the day before. I had a real office job this summer and at One member of the Force gets on the phone the end of the day I would get to drive home, and calls another member. The conversation listening to the news and complaining about goes something like this: the ineptitude of Yasushi Akashi. I decided that things actually went way beyond inepti- Member 1: We think so-and-so doesn't tude, all the way into A Criminal Inability to have insurance. Act. At stoplights I would loosen my tie. Member 2: Oh. We think he does. When I got home I would take offmy tie and Member 1: Oh. We don't have the form. have agin and tonic. ThenI would sit around. Member 2: Oh. I'll have to call you back. The next day I would get up and take a shower and drive to work listening to the Member 2: So-and-so does have insur- news and complaining about the danger of ance after all. Newt, except it went beyond danger and was Member 1: Oh. actually A Threat to the Survival of Our Nation. At stoplights I would straighten my After accomplishing so much, the Work tie. When I got to work I would eat a bagel Force goes home. But they get up again and and drink coffee. Then I would sit around. do the same thing for 45 years. Then they I don't remember what I did at work join the AARP, an organization set up by the because it was inconsequential. It's not just old people to fight the young people, and go that my own work was inconsequential; all to meetings to oppose zoning changes in the work in the whole office was inconse- their neighborhoods. Then they drive home quential. But that's not an insult to my former and listen to the news and complain about office because all the work done in all the the role of defense lawyers in the Decline LAST-DITcaAPPEAL th e 4fye and Fall of America. Then they sit around. It's no wonder that we try to avoid this "real" world. I think college students still have something that most people over 30 have lost: expectation. When you start col- lege you have a vague idea that something really good is going to happen. But as time wears on, you realize you still can't specify what the really good thing is. It becomes clear that, for the vast majority of people, the really good thing never materializes. Once you're a senior, the possibility that it even exists seems slim. But old illusions die hard, and we would rather buy a little time in Europe than bite the bullet and sell securi- ties. I discussed this problem (the general meaninglessness of our working lives) with a Century 21 agent. "What did you expect?" he said. The way out of this mess is to be able to answer that question. I can't yet do this, but some people don't resign themselves to real- ity as firmly as my Realtor friend. They never stop looking and some are even driven into a strange fantasy world. An example is my uncle, who believes that Disney World is the real world and everything else is the fake world. Let's hope he's right. It would mean a lot less stress when we get back from Europe. - Jordan Stancil can be reached over e-mail at rialto@umich.edu. I JIM LASSER SHARP AS TOAST NOTABLE QUOTABLE 'A scab works here.' - written in chalk by an unknown source on the sidewalk outside the Detroit Free Press Ann Arbor bureau Monday Granting a reprieve Congress shouldn't cut Pell Grant program IssuEs FORUM n the information-driven economy of the future, education will be an important engine ofeconomic success. Individuals will need high levels of education to succeed in many fields, and economies will need well- educated workforces to be competitive. Bal- ancing the federal budget is a worthy objec- tive; However, Congress must not harm higher education in the process. The issue of student aid has become a major political battle, with the Republi- can congressional lead- ership pressing ahead with cuts, and President Clinton threatening toS' veto them. This summer, both houses of Congress agreed to a budget resolution outlining planned federal spending over the next six years. The resolution detailed $10 billion in cuts to federal student aid, including big cuts in the Pell Grant program. This item is espe- cially troubling - these grants provide edu- cational stipends to students on the basis of financial need. The House appropriation bill. cuts the program from $6.4 billion to $5.6 billion and eliminates 280,000 students from the program. The Clinton administration, on the other hand, has called for $400 million in new funds for the grants. Clinton's proposal constitutes a wise commitment to higher education and should be incorporated into the final budget. The Pell Grant program is overburdened as it is, and Congress has not fully funded it since 1980. In the 1987-88 academic year, 2.9 million students took advantage of the program-by the 1993-94 year, that number had climbed to 3.7 million. Because of the growth of use and decline in funding, the awards have shrunk dramatically. The maxi- mum award as a percentage of college costs has declined from 46 percent in 1980 to 21 percent in 1994. Adjusted for inflation, the value of the maximum award has declined by 65 percent since 1980. America will pay in the future for the past 15 years' neglect of the Pell Grant program. To further cut the program now would be a monu- f Um mental error. Many dis- advantaged students would never have had the opportunity to attend col- lege without such programs, which provide outright grants and carry with them no debt. On this issue in particular, the Republicans' proposed cuts raise the specter of an elitist system of higher education in America. Pell Grants and similar programs are important engines of upward mobility, giving young people opportunities for education they would not otherwise have. Cutting these grants deeply would be a step back toward the days when college campuses were playgrounds of established wealth. Cutting the deficit is an important invest- ment in America's economic future. How- ever, education is just as important, and Con- gress should not turn its back on America's students. Continuing Pell Grant funding. would be an important component of any sound plan to cut the deficit while preserving America's commitment to education. Papers right to print Unabomber manifesto By Erin Marsh Imagine for a moment thati you publish a newspaper. A noto- rious terrorist sends you a lengthy manuscript one day, accompa- nied by a promise to stop taking lives IF you print this manuscript.+ Both the FBI and the attorney general "strongly urge" you to+ comply. Your journalistic prin-; ciples are telling you not to yield to a terrorist. What to do? It's a+ tough call ... or is it?1 Noble journalistic values aside, the publishers of The New York Times and The Washington+ Post made the only plausible de- cision between two very unat- tractive options. They needed an immediate decision, much like the type of decisions that publish- ers are called upon to make every Marsh is an LSA sophomore. Journalism By Zach Gelber Ever since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80, when Ameri- cans received daily updates of American hostages on the evening. news and Jimmy Carter's ap- proval ratings plummeted to an all-time low, terrorism has seared the American consciousness. As the arms race escalated in the 1980s and the Cold War waned with a beleaguered hammer and sickle, the United States replaced its defeated comrades with a new international bogeyman - ter- rorism. When the World Trade Center was bombed in February 1993 America's worst fears blos- somed into a horrific reality, as we saw six people killed and doz- ens injured; America's vulner- ability to terrorism was exposed like an open wound. Just as we day. Journalism is a volatile busi- ness - any precedent set today will in all likelihood not apply tomorrow. The publishers of the Times and Post were correct not to be concerned with the ramifi- cations of the publication upon future terrorist requests. The me- dia does not survive by second- guessing the whims of the future - this decision is unique to the case and should not be applied to the possibility of copycat occur- rences in the future. Second, the newspapers re- ceived counsel from the FBI and Janet Reno. They advised the pa- pers to print the manifesto on the grounds that earlier excerpt pub- lications had "resulted in numer- ous investigatory leads." Their aims are simple: They want to catch the elusive criminal and end his 17-year bombing spree. This shouldn't{ mess. Last Tuesday - prodded by Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh - The New York Times and The Wash- ington Post, arguably the nation's two most prestigious newspapers, collaborated in printing the Unabomber's manifesto. As one of the world's most elusive ter- rorists, the Unabomber has wreaked havoc, murdering three, injuring 23 and recklessly de- stroying property, while manag- ing to avoid authorities for more than 17 years. When the world's most notorious terrorist threat- ened to strike again last week, the Times and Post acquiesced to his demands. Although only the Post ran the letter, the Times took equal responsibility for the decision. In addition, both papers agreed to is hardly an occasion on which to attempt to surmise the motives of a government agency. Public 7 safety is an obvious consideration; - and a newspaper does in fact exist to serve and inform the pub- lic. Denying the Unabomber'sde- mands would have been irrespon- sible and in flagrant disregard for the welfare of the public. Lofty i ideals and saved newsprint do not amount to much when compared with endangered lives. Though . the word of a terrorist is not the; voice of reason, the decision-; makers had to assume that the promise would be kept - what were the alternatives? Ifthe prom- ise to end the massacre is kept, then the papers have lost nothing but the cost of the insert. "... I'm convinced we're mak- ing the right choice between bad options," said Times Publisher give way to ance of the Times and Post, the Unabomber resolved only to bomb with the intent of destroy- ing property. Sounds like a fair quid pro quo, right? While the decisions of these two privately run newspapers are certainly theirs to make, the deci- sion to print the Unabomber's manifesto was both unethical and unwise. Although journalism is a form of public service, newspa- pers should not allow themselves to be used as the tool of govern- ment officials. As the main con- duit between the public and gov- ernment officials, the press, often referred to as the fourth branch of government, must remain impar- tial and uninvolved in law en- forcement and other government affairs. While the ultimate decision to Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. I will not presume to criticize the pub- lishers of such prominent papers as the Times and the Post -- The New York Times is not the Star. I have no doubt that - far from sensationalism -they took ac- tion in the name of protecting the public to the extent of their abili- ties. They made the decision re- sponsibly, with much counsel and consideration. In addition, thepa- pers' editors ensured that they are almost completely absolved of any blame resulting from pos- sible future attacks. They have done their part, and in the process have temporarily sated the Unabomber, complied with the request of the FBI and attorney general and quite possibly saved some lives. That's a pretty good deal for the publishers, and for all of us, for that matter. terrorism Director Freeh misused their power by applying pressure to newspaper editors and unfairly involving them in matters of law enforcement. In a misguided attempt to save lives, the difficult decision to run the Unabomber's manifesto could unfortunately expose newspapers across the country to countless future terrorist demands. While the editors of The New York Times and The Washington Post justified their decisions as a spe- cial case of humanitarianism, the outcome of such claims is yet to be known. Malicious lunatics across the country cannot help but see this incident as a personal invitation for their terrorist fan- cies. Acceding to the demands of any terrorist is not only a breach of journalistic ethics but is also HOW TO CONTACT THEM To voice your concerns about student aid to Congress 1-800-574-4A I D