vol_10_no_5 by Michigan Review

U- to Debate " PC Frame-Up" by John J. Miller

Genovese, a feminist who has been critiLiterature and Culture; Todd Gitlin, a of left-leaning professors, students, staff, cal of political correctness, will also atsociologist at the University of California A conference on political correctness and campus ministers. tend. "The popular at Berkeley; and Jon will be held at the . Other participants University of Michi~ Wiener, a professor of media's portrayal of will come from the UAmerican history at the gan on Nov. 15-17. political correctness Entitled lithe P.c. M community and inUniversity of California has been a discourse clude a number of Frame-up: What's at Irvine and a contribcontrolled by conserprominent activist facvatives and traditionuti~g editor of The NaBehind the Attack?,' ulty members, such as the event will include alists," said Richard tion; professor and chair of a number of panel Representatives of Campbell, an assisthe psychology departdiscussions and the anti-PC movement tant professor of comment Pat Gurin, profeswill include Stephen speakers. nWnication, confersor and director of the ;~nce organizer, and .. Balch, president of the As its name indiwomen's studies procates, the conference National Association of sel'-described illibgram Abbie Stewart, aims to counter acScholars (NAS) and an eral populist." ;/ and professorofbiology associate professor of "We hope to tip cusations that ~ John Vandermeer. American colleges 3 4 • 44 • government at the John the scales and let other and universities are Richard Campbell is a U-M assistant voices be heard," said Noticeably missing Jay College of Criminal Stephen Balch is president of the dominated by a left- professor of communication and conCampbell. Justice, and Richard National Association of Scholars. are well-known conserwing orthodoxy that ference organizer. Bernstein, a reporter for These "other vative faculty members the New York Times who helped focus the refuses to tolerate any such as professor of psychology Joseph voices" will include form of dissent. The conference organiznation's attention on political correctHouston Baker, director of the Univerers are themselves a loose amalgamation sity of Pennsylvania's Center for Black ness through his articles. Elizabeth FoxPlease See Page 10

•

I=r Wr

,.J~ ....",

Meal Plan Provides Cornucopia of Options \

by Ryan Boeskool \ No longer do U-M students have to eat Chicken Dakota and like it. With new meal plans and the opening of Entree Plus to establishments such as Little Caesars and Subway, students have more say in what they eat than ever before. The question of, "Spinach quiche or starve?" has become "Lotsa LotS4l Pizza or Cold Cut Combo?" Every year the Housing Division puts together a ratings committee to assess certain aspects of the residence halls. The ratings committee is comprised of David Foulke, the Associate Director of Housin~ resident hall managers and students. Eventually, the regents use the committee's findings to decide on options for next year's meal plan. In addition to the continuation of the regular 13 meal-a-week plan, last year's commi ttee created two revolutionary meal plans: Weekday 9 and Zero Meals. The Weekday9 meal plan is aimed at the student who goes home often on weekends or is too busy to eat the regular 13 meals. Under this plan, students get

nine.meals a week, as well as an Entree Plus account of $150. The Zero Meals option is seemingly designed for the student with 24 credit hours that subsists solely on granola bars. The option consists of only a $550 credit to a student's Entree plus account.

Through surveys given to the students, the ratings committee estimated thatoutofa total of 8000 students, 1600 to 1800 would switch to the Weekday 9 and 10n would go to Zero Meals. When actually faced with the options, 6470 students stayed faithful to their 13 meal plan, 1328

students opted for the Weekday 9 and 163 students chose Zero Meals. Larry Durst, the Business Manager for the Housing Division, calls the new meal plans "a considerable improvement in

Please See Page 11

24-Hour Libraries? by Ken Johnston Almost everyone has studied until early in the mOrning. It is simply a part of college life that students will study long past the point where most people with real jobs have gone to sleep. The University of Michigan, however, fails to provide late-night study space for students. The Undergraduate Library (UgLi) doses at 2 a.m. Sunday . through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday, while the Hatcher Graduate Library closes at midnight Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. on Friday, and 6 p.m. on Saturday. Many of the residence halls contain lounges where students can st;end the

,..".. . .

~u"_ . ~~""

night studying, but these areas are not open to the majority of students, who live off-campus. Empty classrooms in Angell and Mason Halls have offered a quiet environment in the past, but seqJrity guards have recently begun to lock them up at midnight. Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) president Jamie Green is one of many students who is adversely affected by the library's limited hours. "My studies usually begin at midnight," Green said. Finding the idea of a 24-hour library pepu tar with other students, Green incorporated the idea into his campaign last falL

-INSIDE Holocaust Debate

Reverend Al

Hail to the Wildcats?

Interview: Privatizing Schools 8

Please See Page 11

.. " . .•,, .., ..

Uq ............

" .

• .•

".~" ~

"''''"''.

..'' ......''...

••

".>~

~'''

_ _ .. , .. _

•_ • _ _ _........_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

.~ _

November 6, 1991

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

,5:'

Serpent's Tooth Big James Duderstadt recently bungled his way through a speech delivered to the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce. He said the country must begin to form some"conserving values." These values, however, should not be mistaken with "conservative values [which] are what got us into trouble in the 19805." Actually Dude, it's the swelling mass of leftist bureaucratic nonsense' that has created most of the poverty and waste you so deplore. When honest citizens have to work from January to May simply to pay the taxes that support burgeoning ad~ ministrations addicted to handouts (not unlike the one that employs you), what do you expect? Quit trying to get your wife on the U-M payroll, stop granting the Black Student Union its annual $35,000 in blood money, cut every department's budget by 10%, and then we11 talk about the differences between conserving and conservative values. Convicted murderer Alfred Lavers recently argued unsuccessfully against receiving the death penalty for slowly stabbing his wife and stepdaughter to death, according to the Grand Rapids Press. Lavers contended that since he could not afford an expensive gun to kill his relatives, he had no choice but to rely upon crude weapons that necessitate torturous pain before death. This, he alleged, is a form of socioeconomic discrimination. Enough said.

Mr. Boffo by Joe Martin ,......

6E:T'n:\€"

I _""w-..

M .... _

it~4·

Recently seen scrawled under the West Engineering Arch: Com is Fuel Oil is Murder Does this mean that com fuels·,murder? A t-shirt being sold on campus reads "The University of Michigan - The World is Our Campus." Shouldn't this really say, "The Campus is Our World"? Bad cop! No donut! Bad cop! No donut! The intellectual lightweights over at the Daily have suggested that our Constitution's Second Amendment (you know, the one that grants us the right to bear arms) doesn'tprant us the right to -.. bear arms. Wi~t'it wasting the two col-.... umn inches It would take to dismantle their argument, we'will simply propose that hunting season for all opinion page staffers begin tomorrow. That gives you folks one day to clear out of town before the Review's hunting aficionados Crusty and Bud Muncer - unpack their bazookas.

THE would be the last person standing, while the other "half believes a member of the trombone section would remain. One thing is for sure: the piccolos wouldn't last long. So, rather than hear one more lame cover of a Miami Sound Machine song, we suggest that the band fight it out this Saturday when we play Northworstem. .

Daily Weekend columnist Jonathan "Vol~ leyball Wunderkind" Chait suggested that every issue of the Review is a "fas~ cism issue." Chait displays not only ig~ norance of political theory, but a little nearsightedness as well. Jon, if you're really looking for a "fascism issue," you ought to glance over an advertisement r~ently placed on the back page of your own newspaper.

MICHIGAN REVIEW "We are the Establishment"

The Campus Affairs Journal of the University of Michigan Editor-in-Chief ............... Brian Jendryka Publisher.....................Karen S. Brinkman Executive Editor................. Adam DeVore Executive Editor..........................Jeff Muir . Contributing Editor...............Jay McNeill Contributing Editor........ .David J. Powell Contributing Editor...........Stacey Walker Assistant Editor............ peter Dal:gavietis ,Assistant Editor......................Corey Hill Assistant Editor...........Kishore Jayabalan

Rumor has it Detroit mayor Coleman Young has signed a book contract, and will produce his autobiography in 1994. Music Editor ...........................Chris Peters Hizzoner, however, denies these claims. ~ ""'-llerary Editor................ Adam Garagiola Our guess is that the mayor did indeed""MTS Editor ............ ............... .Doug Thiese signa book contract, but backed out when Production Manager.......... ......... Andrew he realized that Detroit public schools Bockelman are so bad that none of his constituents Production Manager......Tracy Robinson could read. Staff

Wouldn't halftime at football games be one heck of a lot more interesting if the marching band took the field and, instead of playing their instruments, simply engaged in a random melee? Half of the Review staff believes that a tuba player

"Student interests are served when students cannot study for exams because the heat is not working in their apartmentandtheAATU(AnnArborTenants Union] cannot be there to help," claims the Fall issue of the Tenant's Voice, the AATU's newsletter. Freudian slip?

ONES ONll LX viE· .'

~ ~ _

r ON'1

,;,

__ u __ 0*11,--.

w... ~ me

~'HAY

'TO 1al.. IMlEN ~t'EALI~b

Wrll1 ~EON6-

~eulL-"'"

"'~U~~ Fbo~

::b:-

MrlN

.JL S6

Our hypocrite of the month award goes to the Daily for having the gall to quote Ayn Rand (!) on its editorial page. Having seen the Daily borrowing from the Fountainheild, we canbarely wait for its editors to begin paying long-overdue tribute to the capitalists they so often decry. We never thought Rand was talking about the need for people to "speak out" to expose sexual abuse. But who knows? Who is John Galt?

....... ". --~-~ .,- .,--.--.

F.ddie Amer, Chris Bair, Mike Beidler, Ryan Boeskoo~ David Boettger, Mis ter Boffo, Kevin M. Bowen, Michele Brogley, Mark Burnstein, Quis Goutier, Joe Coletti, Brian Cook, Tim Dan, Keith Edwards, Athena Foley, Tony Ghe<:ea, John Gnodtke, Jonathan R Goodman, Chris Gutowski, Mike Hewitt, Nicholas Hoffman, Aaron Hurst, Nate Jamison, Ken Johnston, Beth Martin, Kirsten McCarrel, Peter Miskech, Bud Muncher, Crusty Muncher, Bill Murley, Hashim Rahman,Mitch Rohde, David Rothbart, Cannan Shafu, Michael Skinner, Dan Spillane, Jay Sprout, Kenneth W. Staley, Perry Thompson, Jim Waldecker, Tony Woodlief.

Editor-at-Large ...................John J. Miller Publisher Emeritus ........... Mark O. Stern Editor Emeritus .................. Marc Selinger The Michigan Review is an independent, nonprofit, student- run journal at the University of Michigan. We are not affiliated with any political party. Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board. Signed articles represent the opinions of the author and not ne<:essarily those of the Re-oiew. We welcome letters and articles and encourage comments about the journal and issues discussed in it. Our address is: Suite One 911 North University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265

"'""'.... - ·- - · - - -......."w·"""_"'.-"""'.wt~~.+Edi G..,...,.I£A!<I~ ~~

November 6, 1991

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

Roving Photographer Would you use a 24-hour library? by Mitch Rohde

/"' ,

<4l 1lll

"III

•

•• •• •

~f'

,-- I ..

t • • I ••

till

t,~',~ ~

•• C;.1IJ •••• •• •_.Het ·• •• .. }...• , ",t

"""-><to

~Ui

Anthony March~ff, School of Social .. KaKeung Siu, Engineering Junior: I am for 24-hour computer labs, but the liWork: Yes, I think I :vould use one. Albraryopenuntil midnightisgoodenough though women would fear assaults, esfor me. pecially if they have to park their cars.

Jon Hayden, Engineering Senior. No, I'm an engineer and we don't study.

Mary Lou Stow,Law Student: Hell yes! The current University policy encourages students to put off the bulk of their study until the last minute during finals week when the hours are extended.

r-------------------------, I I

Do you ...

1 I I I I I I I I I

Oppose speech bans? Support the teaching of classic literature? Abhor the politicization of the classroom? Feel the U-M's leftists need to be challenged? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, support

I I I I I Stephen W. Salant, Joseph Swiers, and Theodore Bergstorm,U-M Faculty (guess which department): Depends on how much it costs.

A Bastion of Hateful Conservative Ideas

The Michigan Review I With your tax-deductible donation of $20 or more, you'll receive a one-year subscription to the campus affairs journal of the University of Michigan. You'll read in-depth articles about the wasteful U-M bureaucracy, be the first to hear of First Amendment violations, and keep abreast of the forces working to erode traditional Western education. YES! I WOULD UKE TO HELP! I'm sending my tax-deductible donation of:

_$25

$20

Tile Miclligan Review MTS Computer Conferellce

I I I I

$50

..,.-

_$100

_$500

_other

Name:

Addn'ss:

To join, type "$SO MREV: Forum" at the # protnpt. •

• LI

• Suite One, 911 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265·

-------------------------

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

From Suite One: Editorials

November 6,1991

)l,''';

Challenge Revisionism, Don't Ignore It In a controversial advertising escapade, the Michigan Daily recently covered its back page with a shockingly revisionist advertisement entitled "The Holocaust Controversy: The Case For Open Debate." The ensuing outrage at the Daily had many sources, most notably Hillel, TAGAR, and the many unaffiliated Jewish students on campus. The business staff promptly apologized for running the ad, and the editors defended the Daily's right to publish it on First Amendment grounds. Meanwhile, University of Michigan President James Duderstadt encouraged critics to direct their animosity toward the ad's author instead of the Daily. The quality of the resultant debate, unfortunately, has suffered for various reasons, and campus groups appear to be missing an opportunity to defend the truth of an important historical claim. The advertisement, authored by Bradley R. Smith and paid for by the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), has enraged the campus Jewish population and many others by contending that the Holocaust did not actually occur, that the gas chambers at Dachau existed solely for the delousing of prisoners' clothing, that pictures documenting Nazi atrocities, though "real," were put to "base" uses, and that the entire Holocaust was a "propaganda" conspiracy orchestrated by the Allied governments. These claims, of course, are ludicrous and often self-contradictory ramblings. But to counteract them requires more than stigmatizing them, as many of the "how dare you print that?" responses have sought to do. It requires refuting them with respectable historical scholarship and concrete evidence. The only sound point Smith makes in the advertisement-~ fuat "We debate every other great historical issue as a matter of course, but.. .hilVe made the Holocaust an exception." Though somewhat hyperbolic, Smith's comment Bpeaks to an important problem: the pseudo-toleration of unpopular views on campus. One irate Daily reader wrote that "every justification" for running the ad "fails," and furthem10re that "rational restraint" should have convinced the Daily to reject the ad. Another wrote that the publishing of the ad was a ''blatant example of insensitive and irresponsible journalism," and that "the business editors of the Daily neglected

their responsibilities to their readers by allowing the inflammatory ad to be published ... " One "appalled" trio wrote that "the Daily has underestimated the degree to which students on this campus may not be aware of the facts of the Holocaust," and suggested that a "sad state" would result from the revival of Holocaust revisionism. But is it not better for the ignorant to witness the presentation and refutation of CODOH's views, rather than remaining ignorant and susceptible to fu ture deception? Is it not better to lay revisionist rhetoric to rest now than to wait until these views quietly infect the academy, waiting to blossom when no Holocaust survivors remain? As one letter to the Daily aptly summarized, "The Daily's readers seem to think that the editors should not have run [Smith's1 ad. I assume that they believe only certain ideas are fit for public consumption." But which ones? And w.ho decides? And might not rationality lead one to print the ad, especially given that it reads like a self-satire, is rife with absurd confutations and hedged bets, and will almost assuredly work against its own ends on the U-M campus? Despi te their outrage, studen.ts should take ad vantage of Smith's plea for "open debate" by smothering his revisionist blathering with an avalanche of more credible evidence. Hillel, for instance, could sponsor an exhibition on the Holocaust that irrefutably documents this historical tragedy. Given the amount ~f attention garnered by the COOOH ad, the exhibition would probably be wellattended. Are the Daily's editors and business staff really deserving of ridicule and blame, as many upset readers suggest? No. Just the opposite, in fact. The Daily's only mistake was printing a disclaimer box distancing the paper from the ad the day after it ran, instead of alongside the original ad. In an interesting revision of his views regarding free speech, Duderstadt told the Ann Arbor NW5, "Surely the best protection against tyranny such as that which brought aboat the Holocaust is the free expression of ideCls路 through a free press." Now that emotions have calmed, let's see this revisionist nonsense thoroughly debunked.

Bullard's Plan Would Worsen Health Care In response to the one million Michigan citizens without health care insurance, State Representative Perry Bullard (D-Ann Arbor) has proposed House Bill 5212. Known as "MiChicare," the bill would provide for a system of universal health care coverage for all state residents. It would include coverage for all inpatient and outpatient hospital care, institutional and community long-term care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs. House Bill 5212 is, in essence, the nationalized Canadian health care system on a state level. The Canadian system, however, is fundamentally flawed and dangerous for Michigan. Proponen ts of the Canadian system contend tha t it provides uni versal health care for all citizens at a low cost. Poor citizens unable to afford expensive treatment in a market-oriented, profit-seeking system would be able to get the treatments they desire, Bullard contends. What they do not realize is that Canadian hospital administrators actually have an incentive to provide poor health care. A U.S. hospital run for profit strives to keep all of the beds full. Insurance companies, however, pressure it to treat patients quickly and then transfer them home or into anoilier inexpensive setting. Hospitals in the U.S. provide efficient service, short stays, and a high turnover rate. The Canadian hospital, in contrast, receives a set budget. As any competent administrator will note, keeping expenditures within a budget is of primary importance. Thus, treating patients with costly illnesses works against the hospital's financial interests. As one Canadian doctor told Policy Reviw, "The best way to stretch a fixed hospital budget is by keeping sick people out and healthy people in." Canadians have become somewhat accustomed to this poor service, and long-term patients have been nicknamed ''bed blockers." In other words, poor citizens unable to afford costly treatment will still be put on hold, en masse. In fact, the more costly the treatment, the less likely it is that they will be granted access. Moreover, as David Friedman writes in The Machinery of Freedom, "upper-income classes pay higher taxes [for socialized medicine], but they also, for various reasons, take much greater advantage of the services." Michigan citizens, who currently spend approximately 20 billion dollars per year on health care services, deserve better. Bullard's plan would eliminate initiatives by

private companies and individuals to forge plans suited to their specific needs. Under Bullard's proposal, payments would be made to the state government through an increased income tax and payroll tax. Such a system assumes that state employees in Lansing will have an "ccurate understanding of what type of health care coverage any given citizen need~.lt assumes that centralized, planned economies can be responsive to highly localized consumer demand - and that is patently false. Central planning not only naYvely ignores the demand side of the economic question, but it also sets an artificially low price - a price ceiling - for medical services. The result, as most economists agree and as Canada, Sweden and other countries with socialized medicine indicate, is a comparitively grotesque dearth of health care. More frightening, however, is Michicare's likely impact upon the future of medicine in Michigan. Canadian facilities find it nearly impossible to replace wornout and obsolete equipment; they have been surviving on a 20 year-old infrastructure. The same fate would inevitably befall Michigan. Moreover, young doctors would seek employment elsewhere, severely damaging the quality of life in Michigan. Michicare's entire theoretical grounding is fallacious. In trying to lower health care costs and provide universal access, the bill would create astronomical tax fees and ultimately undermine the mission of health care. Assuming that the government should subsidize health care, then a form of universalized health care that empowers citizens Clnd maximizes freedom of choice, such as a system of tax credits or vouchers, wOuld be best for Michigan. In fact, since socialized health care is premised on the assumption that wealth redistribution is good, why not have government vouchers which do not specify that they must be spent on medicine? Such an al ternati ve wou ld allow poor, yet healthy, folks to benefi t from the government's generosity with taxpayer's money, while avoiding the market distortion that Michicare would cause. This would create a health care service market and路 permit consumers to determine the real value of a good through a market mechanism, and poor people who would rather have better food than more medicine would be left free to choose.

{...'"<,r:'''-"''''"'''''''路 ...~~~,<~.'''''''",-<" .. <,),;''''~''''",.......""".~~,~'''V''''1'''_,_ _'''1>~芦"'''''_ _ _ _:uu;l'''\:WM:'t\~{,!!,\\~

November 6, 1991 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _---<THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

But Wait, There's Muir

t:I', .... tir ,·M "

Daily Practices its Own Revisionism by Jeff Muir On Thursday, October 24 the Michigan Daily ran a full page advertisement entitled "The Holocaust Controversy: TheCase for Open Debate," which claimed that the holocaust was a hoax, and called for "Historical Revisionism." The next day, the Daily editorial staff ran a front-page disclaimer which stated that its editors believed the views expressed in the ad were "offensive and inaccurate," but, being "a newspaper committed to upholding the principles of the first amendmentand the unrestricted exchange of ideas," they simply "could not justifiably condone the censorship of unpopular views" from their pages "merely because they are offensive or because we disagree with them." On the back page of the same issue, the Daily's advertising staff ran its own apology, which stated that thead in question was "inappropriately placed in the lvlichiga n Daily due to an error in the ad placement process." So which is it? And since when has the Daily held to the maxim that it will not censor unpopular views on the grounds that they are offensive or that the editors disagre\' with them? It seems to me that in scurrying to quell the public outcry over the ad in question, the Daily is engaging in its own form of historical revisionism. As everybody on campus knows, the Daily is notoriously liberal, and its editorial content reflects this bias. Over the past several years the Daily has printed numerousopinions which have been totally offensive to people who do not share the Daily's liberal bias, while refusing to print things which they fell are "offensive" to liberals. To cite a recent example, one need only to turn from the "letters" page of the October 25 Daily to the next page - behold, opinion editor Stephen Henderson' 5 column. In his most recent of many recent blatherings, Henderson here proclaims that "Duke, Republicans go hand in hand." In this marvelous example of a poor argument,

Henderson says a) David Duke was once a Neo- Nazi and a Grand Wizard of the KKK, hence, he is a racist now; b) David Duke is running for the governorship of Louisiana; c) David Duke's platform calls for an end to government manda ted affi rrnati ve action and quota regulations and the welfare state; d) so do George Bush and John Engler, who, gee wiz, are also Republicans; e) therefore, all Republicans are racist. This garbage comes from the same guy who, a few weeks ago, derided CBS's 60 Minutes productioncrew for allegedly "explo\ti-rtg race on campus." In that piece, Henderson claimed toot 60 Minutes was making racial problems on the U-M campus out to be worse than they really are just to get a story. But in making this criticism, Henderson was himself using race, and the accusation of racism, as a sensationalistic vehicle to spout his own views. In addition to Henderson's column, an entire editorial page was devoted to issues of race on campus. Why is it that the 60 Minutes crew was exploiting race while he was not? Henderson'shypocrisyiscompletely consistent with the rest of the opinion page, which routinely runs inflammatory opinion pieces and editorials of only one variety: liberal. "How so," you ask? Let me count the ways. Last year, the Daily ran several articles and editorials which criticized U-M Regent Deane Baker for using .L:i?'~"insensitive" and "big~ oted" language in de~ scribing homosexuals. What did Baker say? He said that he thought that as long as the U-M spent money on counseling designed to encourage homosexuals to come out of the closet, it ought to spend an equalamountoncounseling homosexuals to "come over to the other side." The Daily called for Baker to resign his position as regent. They reasoned that anybody with incorrect (read: conservative) views, such as Baker, ought

not hold a policy-making position at the U-M. Yet just two weeks ago, the Daily ran a guest op I ed piece by Julie Steiner, Director of the U-M's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC). In this piece Steiner repea tedly criticized "white men." Mind you, she didn't mention any particular 'white man,' in her semi-coherent diatribe about sexual assault; she apparently meant all white men. So what is the real difference between the views explicitly stated by Steiner and Henderson, and those supposedly expressed by Baker? I'll tell you: Baker is a conservative, while Steiner and Henderson hold the same radical views as the Daily's editors. But wait, there's more. Over the years, the Review has received a fair number of letters to the editor, originally written in response to editorial positions taken by the Daily, asking us to print them because the Daily would not. In our last issue (October 23) we ran a letter which argued against opening up the U-M's family housing to homosexual couples, an issue the Daily had supported. The author, Ronald DeLap, who lives in family housing, stated that heis "concerned that the Daily appears unwilling to print any letter" which was not supportive of its own position. DeLap further stated that he knew "for a fact" that the Daily had received letters from himself and others

who opposed a change in the requirements for family housing eligibility, yet it had not printed them. In fact, the Review was founded, basically, as the result of the Daily's desire to print only those radical views of its Politically Correct editors. The Daily, you see, consistently refused to print letters to the editor tha t were wri tlen by conservatives and that argued against the Daily's own dogmatic editorial positions. When the Daily says that it is "a newspaper committed to upholding the principles of the First Amendment and an unrestricted exchange of ideas," and as such "cannot condone the censorship of unpopular views ... merely because they are offensive, or because we disagree with them," it is truly engaging in its own brand of historical revisionism. I support the Michigan Daily's decision to run the "Holocaust Controversy" ad. Iamsickened, however, by their cowardly attempt to hide behind the First Amendment. If the Daily is going to proclaim its steadfast adherence to the principles of the First Amendment, it ought to consistently apply these principles to its editorial pOSitions on political events both conservative and liberal. Until it does so, the Michigan Daily remains one of the biggest disgraces at the University of Michigan. Jeff Muir is a senior is general studies and an executive editor for the Review.

Letter to the Editor: Review, Muir Should Protect Women! at the expense of women. The Review prides itself on upholding traditional values, but whatever happehed to the traditional values of respecting and protecting women? Jeff, what would you do if your mother was harassed? Or perhaps she has been harassed, and you don't know about it.

I am a regular reader of the Review and a woman who likes men, but I find it hard to like a man like Jeff Muir who has no respect for women. Both the photo of himself posed with his bunny"assistants" Trixie and Candy at "work" and his comment that '1 was not advocating that men make kissing noises at their secretaries (although I do advocate whistling and heavy breathing,") make fun of women

A concerned Review reader.

The Review welcomes letters to the editor. Please send all correspondence to the Michigan Review, 911 N. University, Suite 1, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1265

,' ·"""...""......... ~,.,~"' ..,·.·" ... "'''''''.~,,w,,,·,._,..:

""""· ...·..,.~_>"'w,m\."" .."". ,....~ ... ' .. "N"',...,

...

" '~ _w.·_ w ••"" .. ,,." ".. 1,lO.>t4"~,,,'''''>\'M!.I~ ~O\W,~~3;,$jt.l\Gl\lllliiC.

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

Essay: Race Relations

November 6, 1991

,. 'w "

The Reverend AI's Message of Hate by Tony Gheeea The Reverend Al Sharpton and his controversial entourage made a special stop at the Power Center on Tuesday, October 29. Bellowing out their usual diatribes against a "bigoted white America," Sharpton and his fellow speaker, Moses Stewart (father of Yusef Hawkins, a New York youth beaten to death by white teenagers) proved once again how a group of loud-mouthed demagogues can preach their way to the head of a minority movement. Sharpton and Stewart have some important things to say, but they seem to be unwilling to adequately defend their actions or maintain any rational debate. More often they merely perform for a rowdy chorus of black students, who praise their every word and shout down detractors. Sharpton was invited to the University of Michigan by the University AcIi vi ties Center (U AC) to discuss, among other things, the inter-racial conflict which erupted this summer between Hasidic Jews and blacks in the New York suburb of Crown Heights. Jewish students attending his speech questioned his actions in the aftermath of the death of Gavin Cato, a black child who died from injuries he received after being hit by a card riven by a Hasidic Jew. They accused Sharpton of inciting antisemitism and leading marches through . neighborhoods lor the purpose of attacking Jews. Instead of answering these charges, however, Sharpton responded by berating the judicial system, which "never defends us blacks." Time and again Sharpton parried accusations of bigotry by either changing the subject or blaming a comment he had made on someone else; "I never said that about Jews-someone else just said I said it." I had the opportunity to ask Moses Stewart about the nature of his movement during the question and answer session. His answer did not prove to be much better. In his initial presentation, Stewart had invoked the name of the "honorable" Elijah Muhammad, a militant Black Muslim who was once the spiritual leader of Malcolm X. I pointed out to Mr. Stewart that "when Ma1colmX was still under the influence of EliJah Muhammad, he answered a question about the genetic inferiority of whites by saying that 'all intelligent white people know that they are genetically inferior to blacks.'" I asked Mr. Stewart if, in his allusion to Muhammad, he was suggesting that he agreed with Muhammad's and Malcolm's views. And if so, which of .' the "two Ma!ColItlX's"did hebelteve trt; '

speak about protecting blacks and atto wonder if there is room in his concept tacking whites. What he refuses to realof "justice" for whites. After the death of ize is that crime does not care about race; Gavin Cato a Hasidic student from A ustralia named Yankel Rosenbaum was to quote Mario Van Peebles, "it's not a white thing, it's not a black thing-it's a pulled from his car by vengeful blacks in death thing." Crown Heights and stabbed to death. Sharpton has locked himself into a Regarding the death of Cato, Sharpton said, "we seek justice." But of the death . world where race is the only factor that of Rosenbaum, Sharpton said "we gon' matters, and he is trying to drag the rest of the black community in with him. defend the two brothers that have been falsely charged with the, uh murder of Instead of talking about the cycle of inwhoever was murdered." (Kenneth S. ner-city poverty which deprives young Stern, "Issues in National Affairs," 1991) blacks of a good education and the chance to earn a proper living, he talks about Sharpton didn't even care enough to race. He even blames on whites the fact know the victim's name. And he didn't that80% of the men in our jails are blacktalk about "justice" being served in this "it's the white judicial system that puts c~, so long as he proved the innocence of "two brothers" who killed a man. them there, and lets white criminals off I spoke to a number of students, both the hook." Al Sharpton is in a position to work black and white, after the Sharpton's Power Center farce. The idea I received together with whites to help fight crime and racial friction. But he refuses to do so from them all was the same: It is truly a shame that a man like Sharpton, a supin peace. He is so concerned wi th figh ting racism that he often perpetuates it posed representative of the black com. munity, is so concerned with preaching .. himself. When he begins to value black the biased message of racial division. lives over white lives, and black interests Sharpton claims to support blacks beover white interests-even with the goal cause "whites don't need support." He of helping his people--he is indeed a suggests that "when a white gets killed, racist. He cannot search for equality until someone gets arrested, but when a black he preaches equality. Until he does he gets killed, you expect us to hold hands will only hurt himself and the people he and sing songs." This is where Sharpton's claims to represent. message dies. While he speaks out of one Tony Ghecea is a junior in English and side of his mouth about the races worka staff writer for the Review. ing together, he uses the other side to

"the racist, or the one we see in pictures smiling with MLK?" Instead of taking a stand on whether he and Sharpton were militant racists or non-violent protestorS, Stewart started screaming abou t how "we're not gonna let you white people divide our leaders up-you're not gonna split Malcolm X into two people!" Sharpton's black student peanut gallery loved that response. And their applause grew even louder when Stewart commented, "You know, one of your white scientists said the other day that blacks are probably genetically superior to whites." I remembered how Nazi scientists had once made simliar claims about the inferiority of}ews-but I didn't want to test Stewart and Sharpton's skills at revising history, so I kept that thought to myself. What bothered me more than the" intimidation pract4:ed by Sharpton and the lack of decorum shown by his sycophantic crowd, however, was the real hypocrisy of what he had to say. It seemed as though every time a black person was hurt or murdered, Sharpton would always appear on the scene "to protect black rights and see that justice was served." I had to wonder where Sharpton was when white people suffered at the hands of blacks and never received full justice. I wondered where Sharpton was when two white women were videotaped being beaten by black gangs in Detroit last fourth of}uly. And I wondered where he was when a Jewish child was killed by a black driver, who was not arrested, on that same comer of Crown Heights not long before the incident he claimed to abhor. Another student asked Sharpton to comment on the cases ofTawana Brawley and the "Central Park Jogger." On the caseofBrawley, who, police have proven, falsely accused six prominent white men of raping her, Sharpton said "I believe that Tawana Brawley was raped, and that she has yet to receive justice from the white judicial system." The "Central Park Jogger," a white woman who was gangraped by five black youths and beaten until she received permanen t brain damage, merited no such attention from Sharpton. His only comment on this case dealt with the suspects, who later admitted to their crime, calling it "wilding:" "Oh, and about tha t case, you know, four out of the five black youths have sperm and blood samples which do not match those found on the victim." No sympathy, no rage, no marches for white victims. ShaI'2t0t: claims to represennh'eblcrck COrrimur'tity, buftine has

J" ,

"Cah I interest you in revolutionary politics?"

'''''- --.' ...

...

' -- - - > ~-. - ''.---~ ,, '''-

...r.w,~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

-~;.~'''<)~

-------

...

~~~~-......,..".~~~

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

November 6, 1991

Sports

\,. If-

:\1<""

Northwestern Makes Big 10 Teams See Purple by Corey Hili The practice of selling football games has finally invaded the esteemed Big Ten conference. On October 19, 1991, the Northwestern Wildcats hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes in Cleveland, a home game for Northwestern in the heart of Buckeye territory. Some schools in the Big Ten, including the University of Michigan, have entertained the possibility of acquiring an extra home game against Northwestern. Ohio State received a $250,000 payout and Northwestern received $1 million for moving the game from Evanston to Cleveland. According to Big Ten policy, both schools share the gate receipts equally and the host school receives all revenue generated from the parking and concessions. Schools that have the ability to attract large crowds prefer not to play games in stadiums filled to less than capacity for financial considerations. The Big Ten has mandated that the visiting school receive a minimum of $150,000, which covers basic travel expenses. Michigan's Assistant Athletic Director Jeff Long estimates that a game at Michigan Stadium generates a visitor's share of $700,000. The practice of changing venues is not uncommon to college football; in some cases i t is a time-honored tradi tion. The University of Oklahoma plays the University of Texas' annually in the CotI ton Bowl in Dallas, Occasionally, Auburn University and the University of Alabama have played for state bragging rights in Birmingham, Alabama, at the end of the season. The most famous neutral site game is the Army-Navy game. This rivalry has been hosted most recen tly in Philadelphia, though it has been previously hosted at the New Jersey Meadowlands, and the Rose Bowl inPasadena, California. While Northwestern has received a significant amount of criticism for changing venues solely to increase profits, Virginia Tech made a similar move that has passed with little publicity. Virginia Tech officials were approached by some Florida business people who enticed the Hokies to play their home game against Florida State in Orlando, Florida instead of Blacksburg, Virginia. The Hokies receiveda substantially higher payout from the alternate venue. While Northwestern's decision to play Ohio State in Cleveland is based primarily on financial considerations, there are other reasons for the decision. Northwestern has a financial dilemma

similar to Penn State, in that each is forced Perhaps the Spartans expected the The Wildcats' victories over illinois to support the entire athletic program Mildcatsofyears past to show up instead and Michigan State is evidence that from the revenues of few profit-making of the Wildcats. The Spartans continue Northwestern can field a competitive Big sports. Penn State joined the Big Ten in their long journey through hell, yet findTen team. The desire to banish North1990 largely because it has become ining a new way to lose, as the Wildcats western to the Ivy League or Division 1creasingly difficult for them to subsidize won 1&-13. Too bad the Spartans will not AA football is short-sighted. Perhaps methe entire athletic program without a play in the Cherry Bowl. Many have diocrity best describes the Wildcat footguaranteed major television package. Alquestioned the benefit of having Northball program, but no team is guaranteed though Northwcstem rarely plays a game western in the Big Ten. After all, the to play well every week. There are nu' before a national television audience, they Wildcats are probably tired of suffering merous schools who would love an opreceive 10 percent of the conference's lopsided defeats in football and basketportunity to compete for a Rose Bowl television revenue and also benefit from ball every year. With all their success this berth. The presence of Northwestern does the post-season bowl game revenues season, Northwesternhas silenced all the motivate the rest of the Big Ten, since no earned by the other Big Ten teams. critics inclunding this one. team desires to experience the embarFor years Northwestern has been an In recent years, winning the Big Ten rassment and humility of a Northwesteasy target of larger schools on the field. has not been a realistic option for the ern defeat. The Wolverines are coming Their last Rose Bowl appearance was in Wildcats. Recruiting has not been kind, off a 42-0 thrashing of Purdue, and they 1949, a 20-14 victory over California. look to dispose of the Wildcats quickly. as ~ost of the all-state players in Illinois Northwestern'S perennial sub-.500 perare heavily recruited by teams who are Michigan 54 Northwestern 13. formance in Big Ten competition is furgenerally in the AP Top 25. Competition Corey Hill is a sophomore in political ther evidence of NOithwestern's lack of , in recruiting is also present from schools science and is an assi~tant editor for the prowess in the Big Ten. The last North- " in the Midwest region. The Big Ten is not Review. He's pr~tty sure he can beat western team that fip.ished with a .500 the only conference that recruits in the Desmond Howard in the 50 yard dash. record was the 1971 squad coached by Midwest. Many recruits are also attracted As a matter of fact, he's willing bet a former Michigan special teams coach to the Mid-American and Gateway conHlr'e'""spot on it. Alex Agase. ferences. ,~ --------------------~------------------Teams frequently look past Northwestern for a variety of reasons, most of them having to do with overconfidence. The upper echelon of the Big Ten regards a game with Northwestern as an opportunity to play second and third-string players extensively. The lack of respect for Northwestern' is not limited to rival Big Ten schools. The Wildcat student body is generally apathetic toward the football team. Every home game, the Wildcats struggle to fill the 40,000 seat Dyche Stadium to half capacity, even for Homecoming Weekend. Perhaps the law of averages has finally reached Evanston, however. On October 26, 1991, Illinois lost its state bragging rights with 17-11 loss to the Wildcats. Diehard Wildcat fans erupted and proceeded to tear down the goal posts as if they had won a trip to Walt Disney World. While the loss could be UP TO attributed to several factors, including the rain and Homecoming Weekend, OFF OF many feel that Northwestern' saIl-purple APPROXIMATE uniforms were the decisive factor in $1,000 VALUE Northwestern's favor. FOR ONLY No one could have imagined a scenario with Northwestern being victori00 ous. Wisconsin and Purdue are teams PER PERSON who have a legitimate fear of the Wildcats, not Illinois and certainly not Michigan. Nevertheless the Wildcats overcame REPRESENTATIVES ARE STANDING BY! the adversity of being the Big Ten's peMonday-Friday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. EST rennial doormat to take college football's center stage in one weekend. Could the MUST CALL NOW - 305-653-9246 Wildcats beon theirwaytoa bowl game? , Certain restrictions available. la ••. l.imilcd number of cnUe Just ask the, Michigan. State Spartans.

6 DAY, 5 NITE HOTEL &

BAHAMA CRUISE VACATION PACKAGES

SAVE 700/0

$165

~'''~n_

.~,,",_,,,,'' '' _ ' _'''' '_ ' '' _ _ + _ _ '~~'~''"'''''~_'''''''''~_

"'~''''~_"

., . . .

;s ,..."".,~>\¥._,<»

~.~""';~

,.... 1IIIl

November 6, 1991

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

Interview: Improving Education

.. '\, ,~v

Privatization Perfects Public Schools On October 31, 1991, Adam DeVore and Tony Ghecea of the Review interviewed Bob Wittmann of Toward Educational Accountability and Choice (TEACH) Michigan.Whittmann, an education researcher and policy analyst, is also the co-author of Rebuilding America's Schools: Vouchers, Credits, and Privatization, an extensive manual on implementing school choice. REVIEW; How would you assess the state of Michigan's public school system? /' WITTMANN: Many people say that when we complain about the poor quality of public schools, we're focusing on urban districts. Suburban community schools aren' t really that bad, they say. But the fact of the matter is that few districts are.good enough. You can even say that about most private schools. All you've got to do is look at international test comparisons. When you take the best American students and put them up against average students in some Asian countries, our best students barely come out in the middle of the pack. One recent poll asked parents in Korea and parents in a Midwestern community how they felt about their respective school systems; people in the United States showed a high regard for their local schools and thought that they were doing a fine job. In Korea, peopl~ were very dissatisfied with the quality of the schools. When they compared the results of the schools, they found Korean schools were doing far better than American schools. American businesSes spend enormous amounts on providing remedial education for high schools graduates who lack basic skill~ Less than five percent of thepeoplegraduating from Detroit high schools can go to college without some kind of remedial assistance. REVIEW: Many groups, most notably the National Education Association (NEA), claim that public schools' poor performance is due to insufficient funding. WITfMANN: Those of us who believe in a market system have to admi t that we really don't know what the cost of education is. Governments simply do not set up effective pricing systems, and that includes education. One reason why the Soviet Union has such difficultY allocating goods is that it lacks an effective pricing system. Until we havea competi .. tive market system, we won't know the

real price of a quality education. Eric A. Hanushek, a researcher and professor of both economics and political science at the University of Rochester, New York, has done a major study in which he reviewed over 150 different studies which had looked at the correlation of spending to quality of outcome. He found that roughly 80 percent of them concluded that there was no consistent relationship between the two. He actually found that some studies displayed an inverse rela1iu-snendinl! increases correia ted

.~ ~ ~

2:)

w ,;,p''''

with decreases in quality. They spent more and got a worse.product. So I think the burden of the argument is clearly on the backs of those who say that we just need more money. If we had many providers competing, we might discover tha t if we put more money into the system, we would then get a better product. But under the present system, that has not been the case. Personally, I think a comprehensive voucher system would improve education and save taxpayers money. REVIEW: Why do you think that competing or privatized schools would be less expensin to run? WITIMANN: Private schools tend to pay lower salaries than public ones, but even if you raised teacher's salaries, private schools would still be less expensive. So even if a voucher system raised teachers salaries - which it might, as it rewarded good teachers and as it tried to attract better workers from other fields - there would still be considerable savings to be had frompriyatization. Take

been passed is for public school choice, and it only mandates that parents be offered intra--district choice. Schools are allowed to establish independently inter--district programs with other districts, but they aren't required to. It's up to the . school board . They can choose to participate or not; so if they decide not to participate, parents in that district can' t choose to send their children out of the district. Ourview on pul;>lic school choice is that it is a weak model on which to assess the benefits of choice for several reasons. First, it is difficult to bring competition into a wholly public system. There are inherent obstacles with the administration letting money flow freely from failing schools to successful ones. Second, most contracts for staff, teachers, and administrators are district- wide. So administrators are not left in a JX.sition to reward teachersatsuccessfulschoolsand let teachers--especially tenured ones, REVIEW: What accounts for that gap? who are very difficult to fire-fall away. WITIMANN: A primary cause of the The personnel structure of the public demand for so many administrators is'" . ' school system is so rigid that there is little regulations and red tape. If public schools that administrators can do to reward betwere freed up from a lot of the regulater teachers and dismiss poorly performtions and red tape, then maybe they'd be ing employees. Choice would eliminate able to compete a lot better. Another such regulations and let parents decide reason is that public schools, as a mowhom to reward. nopoly, have no effective competition. We are not against public education; REVIEW: Don't you think the public we're just saying that all educational inschool system will heal itself over time? stitutions should be able to compete on a fair and level playing field, with the same WITTMANN: There's a lot of economic amount of regulation-hopefully as minidata that shows that the real essence of mal as possible-and that parents should competition is that resources have to be be allowed decide which schools are best. free to flow ou t of failing insti tutions into If public schools can compete in that successful ones-and even with the new environment, more power to them. Some legislation, there's no incentive for pubsay that parents won't be able to choose lic schools to do that as long as choice well, but in the first place, a large deterapplies to public schools alone. An adminant of why young families move, if ministrator is not going to set up a school they can affoni it, is to get their children over here to perform well when doing so into a different school district. So they would hurt a school over there. They are already exercise choice insofar as they not in a position to gain anything by can afford to, but many poor urban famiimproving certain schools to the disadlies have low mobility. Many poor parvantage of others-so schools in a parents who cannot afford an expensive ticular district need not worry about outhome in a better school district would performing other nearby schools. They have access to quality schools under a can remain mediocre. The real, inherent voucher system. Secondly, it makes little weakness of public school choice is thatit sense to assume a parent's choice would focuses almost exclusively on the debe worse than the random, or at best, mand side of choice and encourages neieconomically determined, outcome of just therqualitative nor quantitative improvehappening to live in a given district. ment of the available supply. The limitation of public school choice is that it does REVIEW: The Michigan legislature renot speak to the supply side of the prob- 路 cently enacted some legislation (HB lem. Nothing is done to encourage entre4572) that expands parents' choic~. preneurs, new school providers, or the Doesn't that go far enough? creation of new and better schools. Our proposal would change the logistics of WITIMANN: The legislation that has choice from a system where the provider

the costs of support services. Private schools operate with significantly less support staff -including psychological, social, and vocational counselors, library staff, teachers' aides, and on-site administrators. Public schools often face a situation where a teacher cannot spend part of his or her day working as a librarian because unions setup specific work rules that force schools to hire full time people for each position. So, the main reason private schools are less expensive to run is that they don't have all the administrative overhead that public schools do . Chicago's public school system, for instance, educates something on the order of 400,000 students, and has 3,000 administrators, whereas Chicago Catholic school system, which is private, educates half as many students and has about 36 administrators.

.禄,-,---.--..,.-~"-",>:

~_~IV_'~~L'1!",lt, , \

W;~~~J!I""

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

ovember 6, 1991

:\.~:, ~,

termines the choices available, which absurd on its face, to one where the ovider must respond to consumers. lat's how choice works in every other here of our lives. ~VIEW: How would a complete ,ucher system work?

ITI'MANN: We're basically proposa two-part legislative program. We 'w have a constitutional prohibition at essentially gives the government an elusive franchise on operating schools. Ie constitution, as amended, prevents nds from Howing toany private school. 'cn if a business set up a school, it could ,t presently redeem a voucher. Before Ie can even think about adopting a oice system that includes non-public hools, we have to remove this constitumal prohibition. After that, we're open a variety of different ways of enacting oice. Pilot programs might include .artering private schools into public hools systems, which is distinct from ving vouchers, per se. But dearly the 'st route is a voucher certificate proam. ~

EVIEW: How would such a voucher rtificate program work? ITI'MANN: Each parent would receive certificate which could be redeemed lly by a school. Parents could then oose the school they deem best. They uld takeÂˇ the voucher basically anyilere they want. For parents who want send their children to a distant school, ~ might want to consider separate travel ,uchers--or transpolltation allotments uld be built right 'into the tuition ,ucher. The schools would then redeem e voucher through the state or local ~asury. A question remains as to how uch vouchers should be worth, and hat percent of the voucher should be Ite-provided and what percent should locally funded. That still has to be )rked out. The decision could either be :t to the legislature or resolved through ,pecific legislative initiative. The simest way, politically, would be to leave e existing funding system in place and .ve both a state and a local voucher, oportioned on the share each presently Iys.

in Michigan, and there's accompanying talk about financial reform, for example, abolishing the property tax and going to a completely state-funded system. That would eliminate disparities in funding, and administratively, it would probably be the easiest way to fund a voucher system. But the inequity problem is not one critics can lay at the door of choice advocates because the problem has existed for a long time. It's really a separate issue. Choice in any school district, no matter how well or how poorly funded it is, would provide an incentive for improvement by way of creating competition. REVIEW: You mentioned the possibility of a business setting up a school. What would prevent small operators, or even enterprising parents, from cheating the state by establishing facilities that do not educate and are schools in name only? WITTMANN: All pro~sals for marketbased choice contaip,ad'"equate safeguards against fraud . Schools would have to register wi th an appfopria te public agency, and would be required to administer and publish standardized test results to assess academic performance. Any school which meets the same standards set for public schools would be eligible to redeem vouchers. In Minnesota, they haven't gone to allowing private providers into the public system, but they're allowing teachers to set up schools themselves. If they can show that graduates will meet the outcome assessment norms established for the district, they're left substantially free of many regulations that control public schools. It's done almost purely on an outcome basis. Under a voucher system, non-public schools would have to meet certain other requirements, perhaps including a core curriculum. They would also have ~

to comply with fire, health and safety standards, prove they don't discriminate â&#x20AC;˘ on the basis of race, and have adequate accounting safeguards. But the real key is having outcome-based assessments of schools, rather than 'top-down' assessments, which are commonly employed nowadays . We shouldn't be rating schools based on the size of their libraries, the quantity of counseling they provide, thesizeoftheirclassesortheprominenceof their athletics program. We have to judge them by how well they educate students. REVIEW: Where does the majority of your opposition come from? WITTMANN: The Michigan Association of School Boards is very strongly opposed to choice that includes private schoo Is. The smo kescreen they use is tha t it would be state aid to religion, since manyPrivate schools are religiously affiliated, but wedon'tperceive that. We're oot exclusively out to benefit religiOUS ~hools. We're out to open up the school system to competition. Michigan teachers' unions are probably the strongest opposi tion; they ha ve the most resources. The Michigan Education Association is absolutely opposed to our plan, but I don't think they speak for all teachers. The percentage of public school teache.r s who send their children to pri vate schools is two to three times higher than the rest of the population. So that indicates that teachers are aware of the problems with public education better than anyone else, and they are responding. There are a lot of good teachers who would benefit from choice, but the environment is not conducive to them speaking out. You also have your typical church-state separation groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, who see it as a critically devisive issue to have any "state" money going to religious schools. Essentially,

..,

they've imposed a very bizzarre interpretation on the First Amendment, since the choice to fund a religious school with a voucher does not commit the state to supporting any particualar religion; it's each consumers choice. Butclear!y I think their days are marked for having a Supreme court that protects their opinions. REVIEW: Some have argued, regarding the issue of church-state separation, that it is not that state money is being given to areligious school when someone uses a voucher; it is that people are presently being coerced into giving a certain amount of money to the state which is then earmarked for education. So it is not that by using a voucher at areligious school one makes the state fund religion; rather, vouchers allow one to choose not to fund the state. WITTMANN: That way of putting it gets right at the bias that I perceive in many of the arguments put forth by those who oppose vouchers and choice. Every time I give a speech, somebody in the room has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo approach to public education. And what strikes me is the sheer a~ogance they exude-as if they had a -~nght to this money, as if it were their money, not each taxpayer'smoney,They effectively say that they have a right to decide that those who pay have to live by the guidelines the education establishment sets up. That's fundamentally backward. That these people who get the money say that public education is the bulwark of democracy is hypocritical, because democracy is premised on people being able to choose from a host of options - and that is the premise vouchers respect. That, mQre than anything else, explains the problem in public education today-the arrogance of those who manage the public school system and their attitude toward anyone who questions theirrighttoexclusiveownershipofthese funds. If they were doing their job and providing the best possible education for the price, and if there were no reason to question the quality of education being provided, they would have no reason to fear competition .

r For More Infol'lltation

Contact:

~VIEW:

Critics sometimes object that luchers would be unfair to poor comunities because different school dis.cts have different funding levels since 'operty taxes, which fund public edu!ion, vary greatly from one commuty to another.

TEACH Michigan 913 W. Holmes #234 Lansing, MI 48910 (517) 394-4870

ITTMANN: There has been a lot of Ik about the inequities among districts

~ > U><"'~"~\ '_". """":'''''''<> ' '"'_~'''''''''''''''"_--''''_ ''_'~'_~_'' '''_'''',,,_, _ _,", __ ,_,~=,,.:;::,&,,"Jn,..~.,

,..;

, e "tftf.M1~ ~'-";;'~-~91

"",-,--,-,-

November 6, 1991

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

PC Conference Continued from Page 1 Adelson, professor of English and history Leo McNamara, and professor of history Stephen Tonsor. They were not invited to participate. Funding for the conference has been provided by a number of U-M departments, including communication, history, sociology, and the women's studies program. Campbell expects additional funding from other sources within the University to arrive soon. The PC controversy has been raging for several years on American campuses, but it received widespread national attention only last fall, thanks in large part to Bernstein's work and a Newsweek cover story. Dinesh D'Souza' 5 Illiberal EduClllion, which chronicles what it calls "the politics of race and sex on campus," spent much of the summer on the best-seller lists. "You'll notice that there are no liberal books to match the conservative offerings of Dinesh D'Souza, Roger Kimball's Tenured Radicals, or Charles Sykes' Pro[scam," said Campbell. In one sense, Campbell is correct. The benefits of leveling the Western canon in favor of a new multicultural imperative has yet to be the topic of a bestselling book. Works on Afrocentrism, feminism, and deconstruction have been largely academic in nature, such as Martin Bernal's Black Athena, Catherine MacKinnon's Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, and Jonathan Culler's On Deconstruction. What the left has allegedly lost to the mainstream, it has gained within the \vory towers. The academic left's views have not been completely ignored by the popular media, however. Journalists like Michael Kinsley and Jon Wiener have effectively presented the case for political correctness, and Newsweek recently printed a very favorable cover story on Afrocentrism. That our country is even debating the question of whether Columbus wasa racist further suggests that the anti-PC crowd does not thoroughly control the media. The academic left has started to react to what has somewhat accurately been labeled as an attack. We can see the be-ginnings of a backlash, as many liberals now claim that they have been wrongly accused of McCarthyite tactics and that they are in fact the targets of right-wing witch hunts. 'That's a bit like an 800 pound gorilla complaining about a kitten nibbling atits toes," said Adelson, who bas taught at the U-M for 35 years. "Universities all over the country have become instruments of mass indoctrination."

'\Z: ,y.

'if/ I"

ers assume that a "frame-up" has occurred. "I don't believe in the argument that thought-police control the campus," said Alan Wald, a professor of English and conference organizer. "This is a drastic misrepresentation." NAS President Step}len Balch disagrees. He feels that the allegations of

and the Arts' Bulletin, which details various graduation requirements, states otherwise. According to the Bulletin, New Traditions focuses "on the cultural traditions of women, minority ethnic groups, and people of color." "Maybe that's the case, but it'snotin the spirit of the requirement as formulated," said Wald. liThe department has not yet reviewed the requirement." Regardless of original intent, the New Traditions requirement currently refutes a portion of the conference organizers' statement. Scholarly texts at the U-M and elsewhere are in fact occasionally chosen on the basis of an author's race or gender, with merit apparently playing a secondary role. One must credit the U-M conference organizers for inviting several speakers who will present conservative and traditional viewpoints. The conference itself · will certainly contain a left-leaning slant, , but hopefully not to the point where an intelligent observer cannot arrive at a reasoned assessment of political correctness.

ently racist, sexist, and imperialist. This is not true diversity, says D'Souza; this is "bogus multiculturalism." A statement released by the sponsors of the U-M conference claims that the belief that "scholarly texts are being chosen on the basis of gender and race rather than quality [constitutes] a distortion of what is happening at the U-Mand

''Universities should exist to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next Unfortunately, they are becoming increasingly concerned with social reconstruction." - Stephen Balch

political correctness have been generally accurate. 'They reflect a set of changes tha~ have occurred in the academy-primarily resulting from the infusion of people with a ut0.B~ll political agenda," heSaid. "We noW have teachers actively advocating social c;Pange, and this a deforma- . tion of academic standards." Balch considers the political correctness debate not a question of political views-he can cite a number of liberal academics who support his cause-but a question of how universities should operate, "Universities should exist to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, they are becoming increasingly concerned with social reconstruction," he said. Wald immediately disregards this view. '1t' sa naive statement. Anybody who thinks for two minutes should laugh at it," he said. "When professors choose the texts they will teach in a course, they make a statement," said Waldo "We should not allow a pseudo-neutrality to dominatethat's simply a subtle advocacy. There should not be one advocacy in the university, there should be many advocacies." Opponents of political correctness argue that this talk of "many advocacies" translates into diminished standards and outright propaganda. In his book, D'Souza points to Stanford University, which in 1988 eliminated a Western civilization requirement for freshmen and created a new course demanding that students receive significant exposure to other cultures, or more specifically, the works of women and non-white racial groups. The new texts, however, do not often represent the culture from which they purportedly arose. Instead, they form a critique which concludes that NQ~~~~~,Jlle.co~.er~~org{l~~,- , .. Western dem.~q-~t!c capitalis~ ~~ ,~er•

' J

<'.'""""""'""'"""-'--"_·" _

"". '

. '

••

' .

•

"'. .

"' ~,

~ y. '~. ' ,

other schools of frame-up dimensions." The statement not only chooses to ignore the widely publicized reforms at Stanford, but also segments of the U-M curriculum. The English department, for example, requires that all English majors take a "New Traditions" class. "The key elernent of the Ne~ Traditions requirement is methodology, not John J. Miller is a senior in English and the race or sex of the author," said Waldo editor-at-Iarge of the Review. The College of Literature, ~1.mCe,"'~

~. ":"Oiiii'

Are you Politically Incorrect? Are you forever saying the wrong thing, not up on the cause-<>fthe-month, or are just too bright to listen to another know-nothing professor re-write American "Herstory"? Proclaim your politcal "dysfunction" with pride! U.S. News & World Report's John Leo . reports 21 dangerous new "isms" affecting college campuses on the back of each "Politically Incorrect" T-shirt. ~''spe . ~ ,

,,~~1

oee'(\'t1\:

A...

ISlq',

{;;llth_

• 'L"0llnt

ellta]

:r""",

racisl1l"

... Politically Incorrect. .._--_ ............... ...............

" \\\\'st'C'- L-a

"S\<b

....... --_ ....... ................. ..................

Front

....................

"LoOkiSlt}"

se"f.\S~'

Back

,''-1 e1'o'().\

Please specify size when -ordering (S M L XL), 1111 shirts Il,e white Haines Beefy- T's and the lettering is in Red Ilnd Blue.

Just $13.95 plus $2.50 S/H

Politically Incorrect Products 17516 Old Summit Road

California Residents please include 8 .2:)~ Sales Tax

Los Gatos, CA 95030

::..: ) ' "

""W",~,,,._ _~_,·,,,·,,,,,,_,,,,,,,,_ _ _ _,,,~,,,.,,.,,,',.,.,,_."""_"'~'"

. st'C'-

oJ;;;o;;

, ' ~

_ l

""""""J. "

J'JIoNI'!!!Il

,>tit!>

~\<:

• 'J

:I$,'>'k~.'"

0('

' \ ( ) ' .. "" !

1I«~;:;;:q;:;gh""'~l'!(

;

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

November 6,1991

Meal Plan Cornucopia Continued from Page 1 flexibility for the students." A bigger and much more noticeable impact upon what students are eating, however, is the availability of Entree Plus at eateries in the Michigan Union. Most students echo the sentiments of LS&A junior Jen Spruit; "It's great if you've got the munchies late at night and not alot of cash. You can go get a sub complimentary of the parents." The Housing Division's move to bring in big names like Wendy's and Subway has created a boom in Entree Plus business. 'We wouldn't survive without it," responded Doug Borgsdorf, assistant manager of Subway. "Of the $4000 we take in daily, 75-80% is through Entree Plus. When I asked a kid if he wanted extra cheese, he just waved his ID and said 'Sure, my parents are paying for it

~\ I~ ~, ,,~r

anyway: " Wendy's is also seeing the advantages of the debit card system. Brian Bedore, manager of Wendy's, says, "It scared us at first, but it's a good system. You have less amount of error since it's debit based. We also have less cash on the premises." While the recent changes have had many positive effects, butthere have also been negative effects with which the Housing Division has had to deal. "We will lose $700,000 in revenue due to the Union," Durst said. Instead of increasing student board payments to make up for the lost revenue, the Housing Department has tried to consolidate cafeterias on the weekends. '1t's a bit inconvenient for some students to have to go other resident halls for meals on the weekend, but we expect to make up the $700,000," he said.

24 -Hour Libraries Continued From Page 1 Very little has been heard about this topic since the campaign. Green, however, said that he has not forgotten about it. The office of the Dean of Library Services confirmed receiving a phone call from him on the subject, and Greensaid that has had a meeting with Vice President of Student Services Mary Ann5wain about library hours. Nonetheless, Green said he has "not yet had a directed initiativetowardsexpandinglibraryhoursyet.' Green maintains that changing the Michigan Union's policy regarding student l.D.'s is currently a h!Pher priOrity, although he does expect for the library issue to "become a serious initiative in thefirstcoupleofmonthsofwinterterm." When M5A does take up the question of having a 24-hour library, it may not be such an easy project. The largest factor inhibiting progress toward establishing around-the-clock study centers is the budget crisis university libraries are facing. The U-M library system is slated for a two percent budget cut for the upcoming year. Janis Apted of the Ubrary Development Office says that it would be very difficult for the library to fund any expansion of hours. Green acknowledged that possible financial shortfalls might impede his plan's success. "This cut will be our primary obstacle," he said. In order to overcome this problem, Green has proposed to the vice president for student services that non-library personnel staff the library during the expanded hours. He said that he discussed "not having the library services open to the students; instead just having the libraryitselfopen~ and having It staffed by

someone from a servic~..etganization." Dean of Library Services Gerald Riggs was unable to comrrlent on this proposal as he was out of town. Due to these apearant financial problems, Green said that he would be willing to accept a compromise pla~. Because the primary motivation for his plan stems from the "realization that, after 2:00 in the morning, there is no well lit, dependably quiet place for students at the University to study," Green said he , would "accept something other than a library to be open for 24-hours" as a compromise. Green declined to comment as to what a compromise location would be, however, saying, "I want to start with a library and see whether we can bargain down. A library just seems to be the most logical place to start looking for a 24hour study place." Green sees his proposal as both beneficial for the students and as a positive step for MSA. He said he feels that this is "an issue that a body such as the student assembly should be working on ... instead of involving the MSA with ... grand political activities." He also feels that this is an issue that is supported by most everyone on campus. "A lot of people came up to me during the campaign and said, That was a good idea.'" Green does not predict that any students or student groups will oppose the idea. Green believes tha t he can get nearly unanimous support from MSA. "I can't see why anyone would oppose this," Green said. Nonetheless, he is keeping his eyes open for any possible split in the assembly. "I am always amazed and surprised at the grounds on which some . - 'represeritcitivesopposeU\ihgs," he noted. , " ... " ..",..

ing pizza and homemade muffins . . Snack bars are still profitable operations, though. They offer the convenience for students living in that particular dorm and accepting Entree Plus. If a student misses a meal at the cafeteria, they can get meal credit at the snack bars, something they can't do the Union eateries. Along with the snack bars at the residence halls, the restaurants and bookstore at the Union, the Michigan League snack bar and the Uttle Ceasars on north campus, there is another little known place that accepts Entree Plus- the Michigan Union Ticket Office. Any show at Hill Auditorium, Power Center or the Arc can be bought with the little card. "Entree Plus hasn't been real popular to buy tickets with. It accounts for less than one percent of sales, yet alot of students are asking about it," said John Peckham, a Ticket office employee. Currently, you can only use your Entree Plus card inside U-M buildings. Someday you may be able to buy a Big Mac and fries with it, however, 'We're still evaluating the system," Durst stated. "Our goal is to have the best debit card system in ,t~e country." For now, studenlS-wilfhave to be content with our Biwe Frosties and Baby Pan Pans.

The Housing Division also sees the increased Union eatery business helping the cafeterias, figuring that an occasional meal at Wendy's will help break the'CYclical monotony at the cafeterias. The snack bars have been the hardest hit by the new changes. Before Uttle Ceasars hit the Union last year, the dorm snack bars were the only places other than the cafeterias that accepted Entree Plus. In response to the Entree Plus expansion, snack bars have had to make adjustments. Jim Koli, manager of South Quad's Down Under snack bar, doesn't see the Entree Plus expansion as all that bad. "I kind of like it. It forces us to become more competitive like any other business. We're not a monopoly anymore." Recent changes at Down Under include lo.wer prices, staffing less employees al}d an expanded menu includ-

~ traditional MSA opponent of Green's, representative Amy Polk, supports his efforts in this situation. "It's what we need," she said, "I keep very, very odd study hous. It would be nice to have a library on campus that I could go to." Green is confident that his plan will benefit the studious on campus, even if enacted in compromise fashion. With this plan, he also hopes to ensure that the MSA will emphasize student needs on campus, thereby serving its constituents and improving its image.

Ryan Boeskool is a freshman in LSA and a staff writer for the Review.

$ Loans $ No credit needed!

Ken Johnston is a junior in political science and a staff writer for the Re-

For fast approval on personal or business loans, call for a free consultation with a loan officer today.

view.

1-800-992-8450

MeA

Seminar

FREE Seminar on the 1992 Me AT Thursday, November 14th 7:30 PM Michigan Union - Anderson Rooms This Seminar will discuss the format, scoring, and emphasis of the 1992 MCAT and will provide you with guidance for improving your MCAT score.

Presented by EXCEL Test Preparati on

No Charge - All Students Welcome ... :;;.â&#x20AC;˘. ,.__......;,;,~

,,,,~~+ --- , ,,., ~, ,, ,.., ,, "~'''~'' -~ ~'~''''+''''''''''''~ '''''''''''' ''''~ '''''' ' ''''''''''~ (>''''t::::; i,;'' ':' . ~ :

;'>'-' ;~~,~~~

O!"4l~, ~

, ......., ".!f!l.fftl

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

November 6,1991

,,'

Arts: Book Review

,..

Vonnegut's Fates is Destined to Annoy Fates Worse Than Death By Kurt Vonnegut G.P. Putnam's Sons Hardcover, $22.95

in bad-mouthing Republicans. Of course, there is nothing necessarily wrong with bad-mouthing Repblicans-I do it a lot myself. It is 240 pgs. simply a shame, however, for Vonnegut, a man of great insight and with the sharpby Jeff Muir est of wits, to trash Republicans with "Here we have a sequel, not that criticisms right out of the editorial pages anyone has clamored for one, to a book of the Michigan Daily or Agenda. God called Palm Sunday (1980) a collection of knows there are enough serious critiessays and speeches by me, with breezy cisms to be made of Republicans, yet he autobiographical commentary ... " So beresorts to the standard refrains of gins Fates Worse Than Deilth, a book de"[Reagan though t) it was good that ci vilscribed on its jacket as "anautobiographiians could buy assault rifles; that the cal collage of the 1980s." Contras in Nice 'agua are a lot like ThoFates would mas Jefferson and better be described James Madison; th~t f, .'/ • , /. I as a collection of Ii ! ! I' . . )0 · . ' Palestinians were fo annoying, namebe called 'terrorists' / \11 f dropping, Repubat every oppbrtulican-bashing, rei\~"f;~(·-.S '· '" nity; that t~ conpetitive chaptf rs tents of wombs were .. ... . , . ... ';;....... . hastily slapped toGovernment propgether either, to erty; that the Amerifulfill a contractual can Civil Liberties Union was a subverobligation or raise sive organization; enough money to that anything that buy a new autosounded like the Sermobile. Fates conmon on the Mount tains a hodgewas Socialist or podge of old arCommunist, and ticles of his from therefore antiArchetectural DiAmerican; that gest, various people with AIDS, speeches. he presented oI\lsubjects except for those who ranging ftom air got it from warfare to religion, as well as selections mousetrapped blood transfusions, had asked for it; that a billion dollar airplane from several book forewords he has written. The only connection that exists bewas well worth the price ... " tween any of these is that they were Vonnegut does slip in a good one written, by Vonnegut, in the 1980s. every now and then. One of the few aspects of the book that makes it (nearly) After reading Vonnegut's Mother Night (which was required in Poli Sci tolerable is the fact that he goes after 460) I counteq myself among Vonnegu 1" s people like Geraldo Rivera (''My daughadmirers. In addition, one of my favorite ter edith was once married most unfortuauthors, Tom Robbins (Still Life wi th Woodnate y to a man named Geraldo Rivera who at this writing interviews little pecker, Jitterbug Perfume> is often compared to Vonnegut. So, when 1embarked clumps of people on weekday afternoon upon Fates, it was with high hopes. television shows ... ") and Jerry Falwell I suppose that die-hard Vonnegut ("Should Christians be sorry that we fans will purchace and enjoy Fates en killed Qaddafi's baby daughter? Wellmasse. It is not a bad book, it is just, Jerry Falwell should speak to this issue, well-annoying. It is annoying because since he knows all the verses in the Bible Vonnegut spendsfar too much time menwhich make murder acceptable.") when tioning all of the famous literati who have he's not trashing Reagan, Bush and been his neighbors or with which he has Quayle. chummed around. Itisa~oying because It is disheartening, however, to read he goes into far too much detail about his such simplistic criticisms of conservawife (who cares?) It is sublimely annoytives from a man with Vonnegut's stating because he uses the word "sublime" ure and creativity when I could merely about 84 times. And it is absolutely anturn on Dan Rather and save myself noying because he is constantly engaged $22.95.

I /(;111!(C,<111

r' ("'r v I: . If/Nse 17ian

L)E~f\IH

Vonnegut's traumatic WWII experience serves as the basis for whatever theme there is to Fates. He was an American POW held in Dresden, Germany, when it was firebombed by the British and Americans toward the end of the war. After the bombing, the Germans gave Vonnegut the horrifying task of retrieving and sorting corpses, This event seems to have given the author a, shall we say, pessimistic, view of man and society. When Vonnegut is engaged in these criticisms, Fates gets interesting. When he expresses his ambivalence or disbelief in God, his intuition that the earth and its inhabitants, due to Western Civilization, are in a steady decline into doomsday (or the abyss or global warming or something) he writes with authority and grace. As sappy as all this sounds, Fates would a lot more entertaining if he would stick to these topics and lay of of h~s Ellen Goodmanesque political commentary and stop telling us how good a pho.togra~· · ....

pher his wife is, or that he lived right down the road from Truman Capote, or that he once met Salman Rushdie, or that he thinks the Strategic Defense Initiative is a plot to line the pockets of Reagan's friends. If you are a longtime Vonnegut fan you probably aUready own the book and you are beginning to dislike me. Fates might be more meaningful to one who is well-read in Vonnegut. Perhaps the fact that I am not one of these types is the reason that Fates seemed so jumbled. If you are either a novice Vonnegut-reader, or haven't read any of his works, I would recommend that you buy one of his earlier novels, such as Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, or Mother Night, instead. You will probably become a Vonnegut fan after reading one of these, and besides, they only cost $2.95.

Jeff Muir is a senior in general studies and an executive editor for the Review.

Main Bookstore : 549 East University Art/Engineering Store and Electronics Showroom: 117 South University Phone : 313-662·320 Monday-Friday 9:00-6:00 Saturday 9:30·5:00 Sunday Noon to 4:00

_._. __ . _ ----=-=,~....:-.w .~"""'. . "' .",.~,......;,..;.:.;.;;.;;.;~,,;~;;,-_-_ _..._ ..!"'.,"" _·_'~~~'''',.._ __~~

{,-j\

I , 1t lit' !

-EWT

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

November 6, 1991

Arts: Book Review

New Clancy Bool< is His Weakest The Sum of All Fears Tom Clancy G. P. Putnam's Sons Hardcover, $24.95 798 Pages

Director. He serves under a new, presumably Democratic, President. He is suffering from a Washington ennui, and he has a drinking problem. His job is causing him great stress; the reader is harangued by statements, from every by Mark O. Stern possible character in the book, that Ryan Tom Clancy's latest potboiler, The "looks terrible." After a dozen or so such Sum of All Fears, contains up-to-thereferences, the reader himself wants to minute descriptions of technical equiJr start drinking. ment and the geopolitical situation. Of Clancy at least offers a few good all his books, however, this one marks lines. In one passage, Ryan reflects on his weakest effort. "the progressive socialists, who wanted In this work, Clancy focuses on the to create socialism with a human face Middle East, an area always rife with (something that had singularly failed in tension and warfare. He must be comMassachusetts}." mended for keeping the book current; it To briefly summarize the plot, takes into account . Clancy sets up a peace process in the recent Gulf War, and the plot rethe Middle East, mains plausible dewhich is on the spite the constant verge of success wh~ a bunch of political flux taking place in the world disgruntled Arabs today. He also distry to sabotage the cusses the possibilproceedings with their own Hity of a hard- line coup against the bomb. This, of Gorbachev-l i ke course, leads toal! president of the 50sorts of problems, with which Ryan viet Union, Andrey Narmonov. The is fortunately able to cope (despite his book's plot hangs together well, takboozing). ing into account all Sum is someof these recent political and diplomatic what longer than earliet Clancy books, changes. and the narrative exposition is much too ' The same unfortunately cannot be drawn out. The plotis fragmented,leaJr said for Clancy's protagonist, hi~torian- . ing about like a soap opera across the tumed-CIA spoo~ Jack Ryan, who first globe. Datelines, like those found in appeared in The Hunt for Red October. Clancy's first book, would have been a Though Ryan's background is wel\-€shelpful addition. tabIished in previous Clancy books, less Another difference in this work, as attention is paid to Ryan's character decompared to previous Clancy books, is velopment in The Sum of All Fears. In The that minor characters get more attention Hunt For Red October, Ryan is a former than in past works. President Fowler atmarine and instructor at the ~.s. Naval tempts to build a peace plan based on Academy, who was called upon to help Ryan's idea while denying Ryan due secure a defecting Russian submarine. credit. In another side plot, the president Clancy here glosses over Ryan's past, is urged on by a scheming and manipujhowever, and it is hard to see the factors lative female National Security Advisor, that have made Ryan who he is. The whoisalsohislover. The development of author writes of Ryan as a man who has these characters, however, is predictably some real problems, but the underlying weak; they come across as being rather causes of these problems are not exone-dimensional. plainedadequatelyenough tomakethem Ryan is drawn more into the seem realistic or compelling. The lack of internecine poli tical strife surrounding . background perversely makes Ryan the high levels of Washington bureauseem more wooden, even as Clancy tries cracy. He now holds a Presidential aJr to make him more human. pointment, and must deal with his imSince Red October, Ryan has been mediate superior,· who is a political hack. Moreover, he has to play Cabinet moving up the bureaucratic ladder, and has now reached one of the top rungs in politics and explain himself to the Select theCI A, the high-level desk job of Depu ty Commi ttee on Intelligence.

. . . <\

• f. t-~,fi

f.i i1 " .)"

'.>

jI-'

,* .. • ..

Clancy examines Ryan's innermost thoughts, as he wonders whether power has corrupted him. This consists of Ryan repeatedly asking himself the question, and then dismissing it. Needless to say, this process does not provide Ryan with a very effective analysis of his inner psyche. Character development is not a new problem for Clancy. He made his name in the techno-thriller genre, at which he was most effective. This genre involves many elaborate technical descriptions, but has yet seen few well-developed characters. Clancy's writing has matured sOmewhat, but Sum still fits the moldone can be certain that any aircraft in the book will be carefully designate<i, and. the buildil)g of a hydrogen bomb is presented in ietail. Still, Clancy has somewhat moved away from his former menand-If.Iachines style.Though this is Clancy's fifth book, Sum displays neither technical nor riarrative progress over his preceeding works. Clancy's tinkering with his original formula cannot be cOo-

U-M T-Shirts

2 for $14.00.

sidered an unqualified success. The book is rather long, as though Clancy were being paid by the word. The entertainment value suffers as a result. Despite these problems, The Sum of All Fears still tells a relatively satisfying story. Clancy fans should definitely read the book, but wait until it comes out in paperback-there is no hurry.

Mark Stem is a junior in history and publisher emeritus of the Review.

. Awesome Tie-Dyes

, ,~ ,t 4 .'. . '

"H_'·""'_'"·""'_"·~~''''''' _ "· W'''W_T''''' '' .-o"""",~

..._,''''''''''''''_''''~''''',.....'''',''''_.-."....'''''' '~'-''ww(/m_'_ _ _'''''''IWWI\IIm'''''~ . .'''~~_''"_ _ _ _ _. . . . . . ._ _...._ _ _ _. . ._

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

Arts: Music Review

November 6, 1991

~ ~~/~

Peppers, Pumpkins, and Pearls Red Hot Chili Peppers Smashing Pumpkins Pearl Jam M.S.U. Auditorium October 23, 1991

by Crusty Muncher Pearl Jam Add Pearl Jam to the list of bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Dinosaur, Jr. that have a distinct independent label guitar-rock sound and a relatively large underground following, not to mention big-label recording contracts. These bands, unlike most of their corporate rock label-mates, avoid flashy outfits, pyrotechnics, and pretty hairdos. They opt instead for raw and sincere songs, written especially for the stage, and perfonn their works with a sincerity that most contemporary rock acts lack entirely. It is against the cheese rock invasion of sissy chart-topping bands like Firehouse, Jesus Jones, and Warrant that Pearl Jam and their ilk have unofficially,

and perhaps unknowingly, waged a fullscale battle for a bigger chunk of the record buying market. In this war the two battlefields are MTV and the stage. Obviously the most glamorous bands win out when it comes to coveted M1V air-time, but very few bands spend their careers in the network's heavy rotation. Victory in this conflict against pretentious, formulated garbage will come with longevity, and it ison the stages of arenas and clubs that the true bands will prevail.

Hi:;Fr'Stlid-io Serving At Since 1951 Used stereo componentslarge selection S~ker repairs-lots of woofers and tweeters Rebuilding-our specialty Phono Needles, Tapes .

TV Service, Antenna Repairs Insurance Work

Rentals & Service of: Big Screen & Regullr TVs Air Conditioners Mini Refrigerators -

PA SysUmI, Audio-Vktco Equipment VCRs Iftd Camcorders

215 S. Ashley Street DowntO'ffll y, bIod< ncrth of Uberty

Mastercard & Visa

769-0341 Mon.-Sat. 10:00-0:30 p.m. J Call for other hours SIIn40t

Gabriel creation, culminated into beautiful instrumental jams embellished with Mike McCready's bluesy leads.

Red Hot Chili Peppers It has taken them almost 10 years, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are now one of the most influential bands on the Smashing Pumpkins scene. They have single-handedly made It was only the fifth show of the tour being funky hip with the white crowd. A but BillyCorgan and his Smashing Pumpfew years ago the bands in Los Angeles kins performed their set of psychedelic were all Guns n' Roses wannabes. Now thunder-groove tunes with the flair and they've traded in their lipstick and tom confidence of a band wi th a decade of denim for slap--happy bass lines and experience and a lifetime of sexual frusJames Brown-like guitar riffs. The major tration. labels have been flocking to sign white Corgan began leading the ban( funk bands like Psychefunkepus, Primus, and The Limbomaniacs. Even some chee~ metal bands want a piece of the funk, Bang Tango and White Trash to name a few. Hell, here in Ann Arbor it's likely that the band playing Rick's tonight has got the funk. Everybody wants to be funk y today, thanks toaFun1<adelic l James Brown revival brought about by a few guys from California. The contemporary funk- rock sounds of the Chi lis have yet to be equaled. Their George Clinton-meets-Johnny Rotten The Four Funkateers: John Frusciante, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, and Chad ~!l\ith:-"~ brand has been documented on five fulllength albums, and the band performed The Pearl Jam set in East Lansing through two new tunes in the signature the best of their catalog at this show. was quite a convincing display, and a Pumpkinsstyle:fuzzyguitartoneslaced "Love Trilogy," a tune from 1987's The decisive move. The five piece Seattlewith eerie feedback over Jimmy Uplift Mojo Party Plan (;'bum, was the based band is touring in support of Ten, Chaimberlin's churning tribal rhythms. unexpected o~neJ .1'11<: song begins as a their Epic Records debut. Six ofthe seven Critics have described this Chicagovery loose b;,ildJ and then slowly the performed songs are featured on the albased band as a cross between Black tempo spe~ c into an old punk jam. Bassbum. Sabbath and Jane' s Addiction, but someist Michael Balzary, better known as Flea, thing along the lines of a jazzy Big Chief Pearl Jam tunes revolve around Jeff then led the band through what was the Ament's backbone bass-lines, which prowith a better and more creative vocalist first of many short instrumental funk vide the core low-end groove typical of would be more appropriate. jams in which he, drummer Chad Smith, the Seattle sound. Guitarists Mike Corgan, wl)o writes the songs and and young guitarist John Frusciante exMcCready and Stone Gossard weave in handles all of the guitar solos, has the changed leads. both soft chords and the essential crunchy stage presence of a stoned flower child, a From the recent Blood Sugar Sex Magik progressions. (Ament, Gossard, and Hendrix and Page rolled into one. Gracealbum the band performed the big-beat McCready were three-fifths of the ful, hazy, and rambunctious. During the funk gem "Suck My Kiss," the ParliaTemple of the Dog project released earpsychedelic, mid-Eastern sounding piece ment-meets-Cameo "If You Have To Herin the year with Soundgarden'sChris "Rhinoceros" he swayed, slithered, and Ask," and a killer rendi tion of the discoCornell on vocals. Ament and Gossard danced with his six string like they did like title track. Singer Anthony Kiedis were also in the defunct bands Green back in the days of free love. River and Mother Love Bone.) Eddie "Window Paine" is a song in which actually played a little rhythm guitar on "Give it Away," the foot stomping singVedder'sultracatchy, yet far from poppy the snarly vocal isa wall-of-sound within a-long MTV hit. John and Flea, who choruses are what distinguish Pearl Jam itself. Calculated jams like "Siva" and the looked like twins with their shaved heads songs from the works of their peers. And single "Tristessa" were held tightly inand Casper tans, made the Hendrix-like the musical accompaniment provides the tact by rhythm guitarist James Iha and ballad "Under the Bridge" a highlight perfect backdrop for Vedder's intense bassist D' Arcy while Corgan delved into with their impressive backing vocals. Anand emotional vocal delivery. his lyrics. thony was a tad off key at times on the Thanks to support from MTV and a Songs like "Why GO" and '1eremy" lead vocals, but most of the crowd probshowcased Vedder's talents as a soulful lotofradioplayon89X,SmashingPumpably failed to notice. and folky singer, while jams like "Alive" kins are continuing to win over the more (the first single) and the ambient non-LP mainstream crowd. Gish, the band's fullKiedis kept the pit hyped with his kung-fu trademark dance steps and witty length debut on Caroline Records, is selltrack "Wash" displayed the talents of the guitarists. Pearl Jam has a way of taking erotic rhymes. Most fans followed his ing well and people like Soundgarden's lead and at times the place looked like a a simple, repetitive riff and by incorpoChris Cornell, ex-jane's Addiction rating instrumental breakdowns and clifrontman Perry Farrell, and Metallica' s giga ntic sweaty aerobics class led by a maxes, they work it into an intense, emoKirk Hamme tt have been attending hyper- active long-hair instead of Richtional statement. "Once" and "Even shows and praising th e Pumpkins to the ard Simmons. Flow," a song written in the Seattle vein press. with a chorus reminiscent of a Peter Please See Page 15 ~

••• ____

",-.,u_,w, _ _

,,,_> _ _ _ .,,, . _

• ."" ..

,~_""

_ _ _.,w> _ _

.~~ ,,,.,,, ~,,~,,

_ __

, __

~.,

,,------~.........---.

........

.. r

. e ".

"" "''''>-'~-=<~i:'=i~""_-.»~~~~~m;m'M'~w_ _""""",,,,_ _''''_ _. ._ _ _...

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

November 6, 1991

.,'

Arts: Music Review

Crusty's Corner

\~:

• '1:''''

Mama Said Let Krav-itz Rule by Dave Whltter 'Thinking positivity-if you want to be with me." These were the first words of Lenny Kravitz as he and his psychedelic side-kicks jammed into the opening "Stop Draggin' Around," one of the heavier tunes from his most recent release, Mama Said_And as the show progressed it became clear that positivity is what he's all about. Lenny, donned in a sparkling purple get-up, continued with his single "Always On The Run" and the cosmically warped acid-funk of "Freedom Train." The crowd was brought back to reason with Kravitz's latest single, a ballad titled "Stand By My Woman." Soon Lenny's dred-Iocks were again flailing as he grooved with the basic three chord blues-rock of "Mr. Cab Driver." Remaining true to his ideals, Lenny brought the crowd into his anthem for racial equality as he invited everyone to sing, '1 Build This Garden For Us." The performance grew in intensity, from the concern of, "Fear" , to the beauty of the power chord

rocker "Fields of Joy", and on through the optimistic hit single "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over". Kravitz, without the accompaniment of his seven piece band, then did a solo-acoustic rendition of his masterpiece "Rosemary." A girl from the audience burst onto the stage halfway through the tune and was immediately seized by security. After a friendly gesture from the singer, she joined him on a chorus. For the encore, the band blazed

through a tripped-out version of the piano-heavy, "What the Fuck Are We Saying." Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., headlining a show next door at the Fox Theater, joined the bandon Kravitz's debut hit, "Let Love Rule". This extended version rocked the theater, with each band member taking a solo,and still delivered the heart of Kravitz's message.

Peppers

Members of the Smashing Pumpkins stood stage left watching their headlining tourmates. '1've seen every show since we've been on this tour and these guys aie doing a better show every night," noted drummer Jimmy Chaimberlin. By the time the tour rolls through Detroit on November 22 and 23, the ChiJis «"Ill have had a good month of touring behind them. How could the Clubland shows not be as funky and fine as live rock n' roll gets?

Continued From Page 14 Other highlights induded Uplift's "Funky Crime," a speed-funk tune called "Stone Cold Bush," a version of the Ohio Players' "Fopp," and.;'l-Iigher Ground," the Stevie Wonder e6ver from the trendsetting Mother's Milk alQl.im. The finale of the show was a rendition of the Iggy and the Stooges classic punk jam "Search and Destroy."

by Crusty Muncher Ratcat must be pretty popular in their native Australia . Their first album Blind Love debuted at number one on the album charts, which no Aussie artist has ever done with a debut album. The trio has released a six track EP titled Tingles here in the states which includes a very cool Ramones-Iike tune called "That Ain't Bad." The band is currently on U.s club tour. The Busi ness of Dreams is the name of the first Blue Train album. The lead single is a crappy dance track called" All I Need Is You." Blue Train is from Nottingham, England, and their music is in that Casio-techno, 'Top 40 Or Bust' style that your eighth grade sister digs. A few of the nine songs on the album are decent, but stale, and your mom might even like some of the sappy ballads. It doesn't get any more commercial than this. i

A Campus Tradition Voted #1 by readers of the: ,

Blue Train vocalist Tony Osbourne When it comes to hip-hop, if Publie Enemy's Chuck D. and KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions aren't liberal-minded enough for you then wait until Island Records releases the debut album from The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprocy. This Friscobased crew has a new single available called "Television, The Drug of A Nation," which is, according to the label, "a scathing and detailed critiqueof a popular medium that seems to get more powerful even as it gets dumber and more violent." (Theyactually sound serious!) To top it all off, the Heroes will be performing with comrade Billy Bragg at the Michigan Theater. Fishbone, who has been known to kick a lot of left-wing bull on stage, will perform with Primus this weekend at the Ca pitol Thea ter in Flint.The Pixies and Pere Ubu will be at the Royal Oak Music Theater on December 1. Siouxsie and the Banshees play the State Theater (Clubland) on December 6.

Michigan Daily Ann Arbor News Eastern Ecl10 Ann Arbor Metro Times. ./

Free IIr---------------------------ro*~"'nn Medium deep dish or round pizza I ~s . q)1'~A® with cheese one topping only I • I I Dehvery! I $5.95 I mee

rl~&A.l

1948

<+tax)

VaJidonly"

' . I Free d elIvery In I 40 minutes or I

I I 665-6005 NotvaJidwl1no1hercouponoff~ I I U of M North Campus MAY BE Wilhsm St. rellIWrant I less guaranteed'i 927 Maiden Lane USED FOR or The CotIage Inn . I Cafe. VaJld at pertlCI. l I 995·9101 MORE THAN paling etorw only . _________ L ______________________________ .JI $3 00 ff

u/MpcentraJ Campus

Offer expires November 20, 1991

S46 ackard

ONE PIZZA

FAX 995.9109

Umhed delivery area

,.. It

""---'''' ' ''' ' ''''' '' ---"",,,,,.~'''''' ,,,,,-

.,..., ___ . ,. ... "~' '''' '' ''' ..,,. ..,,_••'''_ _ _

n ' ....

:;:;;

. S !'-III

n jF?iiiI8ii'

. .~t

ON'SERVATIVE ..OALITION -

We Deliver.

• 51 % More Money to Student Groups. • $1.00 Cut in Your Student Fee. ~

• Automatic Stu<!ent Group Recognition. . ~ ~.

,~ r

•. $80,000 MSA Debt Paid. ....~ .. A"

• Real Concern for Student Issues.

Paid Advertisement •

•

,--.-~ ,,~,--- - "'--~".~.~:=~::.=,-_~~",

..,_....

~ :" ,,_:;"';:';;~:~:

_>_';~~-;;:;__'_ - _'_

' __.:...:.-:_..;....,.;_...:..:.:.-.....;:.:;.;-.:-;;;:;;;;;;;;;;;;;:;;.;;;:;;;;;;;;;;;;::;:;:1====-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;_

_ ______iiii. . ._