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Come One, Come All!

MSA's Circus of the Stars

by Mark R. Tulkkl Michigan student government has never been perceived as particularly legitimate among members of the campus community. It has long been used as a soapbox for espousing radical agendas - usually of no practical significance to the daily affairs of student life - and fostering animosity between regents, administrators, and students.

It is not surprising, therefore, that few students view with great anticipation the twice-yearly menagerie commonly referred to as the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) elections. Yet, despite the wide-spread apathy among students, "the show must go on."

On March 26 and 27, four parties will contend for the MSA presidency, vice-presidency, and twenty-five rep" resenta tive sea ts. All things considered, it haS been a l(mg time since an MSA . election has generated a more dUbious . cast ofpart\es:a:nct candidateS. 路 . ... ..)n 路 a~ditiorifua humber of independents, ConservativeC6ali tion (CO, Common $ense, Emphasizing Student Power (ESP), and the dark horse Antihnperialist Action Caucus (AIAC), are all running candidates for this semester' selections. Noticeably absent from the election is the currently reigning Action Party. The Action leadership, stung by incumbent MSA President Jennifer Van Valley'sdedsion not to seek reelection, seems to have splintered, unable tornaintain the leftist coalition.

Indeed, although both ESP's and Common Sense's' presidential candidates, EricStempienand Angela Burks retain close ties to Action, neither ap-

pears willing to assume the rubric of their ideological ancestor.

Undoubtedly, Burks - who ran successfully as last year's Action vicepresidential candidate-and Stempien - an unsuccessful LS&A Action candidate- opted for new party names in an unoriginal (if traditionally successful) attempt to obscure their past and present agendas and to distance

themselves from last fall's Action electoral defeat.

Interestingly, new information has recen tly come to the foreregarding the political history of Burks herself.

According to formerCC Chairman Jeff Johnson, Burks spoke ou tat a pu blic forum in favor of automatic MSA recognition for Cornerstone Christian Fellowship on grounds that it was an

Last fall the University of Michigan was the scene of unprecedented protest against the deputization of a campus police force.

Until recently the U-M was the sole big ten school and only university in Michigan's state system of higher education lacking a substantive campus police force. In a 1988 campus crime

Please See Page 12

Liddy Blows Lid off Feds

by Adam DeVore

Others were called correctional institutions; I was in there longer than we were in World War II, and I never saw them correct a soul ... " Itwas with such a savage attack on government-sanctioned obfuscation that G. Gordon Liddy began a recent speech to a group consisting mostly of U-M alumni on March 13 in the Lydia Mende lssohn Theatre. Though humorous, his remarks illuminate an irksome reality - that through "the misuse of language" we the people and our government have ceased to confront the "unpleasant realities" behind the problems that confront modem society .

"You may G. Gordon Liddy

"I was in nine prisons in this country and not one was referred to as a prison. Some were referred to as peniten tiaries, but I never saw anyone there who was penitent - certainly not I.

Campus Cops Carve Out New Identity

by Clifton Gault

issue of free speech. According to Johnson, Burks was asked if she would be interested in running with the party in that Fall's election. She declined.

Later that year, MSA Vice-President and CC member Rose Karasheh was forced to resign her position due to a tragedy in the family. CC held interviews for all interested persons.

survey of twenty two large universities, the U-M distinguished itself from the others by having only two deputized police officers. In contrast, the other twenty one universities surveyed averaged 45 deputized officers per campus.

Along with this small number of deputized officers is, not surprisingly, a high rate of crime. As in so many

other'fields of endeavor, the U-M lead the pack. With 2,505 serious,"part 1," crimes on a campus of 58,000 students, faculty, and staff, the U-M crushed its nearest rival in the survey, Ohio State.

The Buckeyes, with a campus community of 73,000, could muster only 1,780 similar crimes for the same period. contrast to the anti-deputization

In

Please See Page 13

say, 'so what?' But... how can you, or I, or anyone else in this country even hope to cope with and solve a problem ... if, for example, we do not even call it by name?"

A hero to some and a villain to others, Liddy is widely known for his role in engineering the Watergate break-in during the Nixon years, for which he was sentenced to 21 years in "prison" and served but five. His time in Washington began towards the end of the Eisenhower administration and he soon became the youngest supervisor the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had ever seen.

Although during his speech Liddy was primarily concerned with the manipulation of language by the government, his subsequent remarks concerning Political Correctness (as well

Please See Page 12

-INSIDE But Wait!

There's Muir...

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Contest Winner!

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Interview: Gerald Jernigan Liz Brater

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New REM album 10

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The Michigan Review, Mafch 20, 1991, p. 2

THE

Serpent's Tooth Common Sense presidential candidate Angie Burks recently told the Daily all about her party's platform. ''Helping people of color shape their own reality is a major part of Common Sense," said the article.

We think this sounds like a wonderful new initiative, if only Angie weren't off in her own little world. But, being somewhat politically left-leaning, it's appropriate that Angie set out to deny reality.

Speaking of which, the Homeless Action Committee - that rag-tag, vagrant worshipping band of urban pirates - has struck again. Their latest backscene burgling is sucking away money from the students of the Residential College under the rubric of a "Benefit Formal." Nonetheless, we at the Review are quite anxious to see the party decorations. No doubt it will emulate government housing projects: the windows will be boarded up with plywood charred from fires and all room comers and stairwells will double as urinals.

And let's not forget the Detroit Free Press Magazine of February 24, 1991, which featured the U-M admissions process and, of course, confirmed what the Review has been saying for years. According to Rick Shaw, Jr., UM Dean of AdmiSsions,the U-M has a goal of achieving 8% Hispanic enrollment In addition, the artcile reports, "minority" applicants go through a different evaluation process when applying to the University. Sorry folks, but any way you look at it, it's racism.

Two bumper stickers Sighted on car parked near the Law Quad: The first read, "Love Your Mother," and sported a nifty picture of the Earth; the otherread, "Abortion:Every Woman's Right." Once again, enough said.

But what about Lesbian Date Rape?

Burks, part IT: In feebly trying to justify her widely-reported forgery, the Angie-meister claimed that the charges were racist because "Some people are threatened by the idea of a Black woman in power." Next she said that the reason she forged the signa-

ture is because the candidate whose name she was forging was an AfricanAmerican. Finally, she went on a diatribe about there being no justice in the world. The charge of forgery was insignificant, she claimed. I/[W]here is that justice when I am walking down the street and people call me a nigger?"

Amazingly, she followed up these remarks by declaring, "I'm not trying to justify it (the forgery) by bringing race into it, I'm just being very honest."

How she kept a straightface, we aren't sure.

Ona more serious note: This past week, the Review sent a representative over to Drake's to chat with the owner, Truman Tiballs. During the course of the conversation, our reporter asked Mr. Tiballs' to read something. To accomplish this, the octogenarian had to pull a special magnifying apparatus out of his pocket and hold the page about two inches away from his I/good" eye. Yet Patrice Maurer, ACTUP, and those freaks who refer to themselves as the "Drake's Five" claim that Tiballs, in a rage of homophobia, threw them out of his establishment because they '100ked like lesbians." We suspect that they looked like a bunch of fuzzy blobs to the honorable Mr. Tiballs in the dim light of Drake's. You ageist fools should be ashamed of yourselves.

At a recent discussion on the Persian Gulf War which was part of International Wymynz Week, Ms. I<arima Bennoune (described as an Arab-American law student") made the following deeper than deep remark: "There should be a rule against Americans killing people whose names they cannot pronounce." Yup. And there should be a rule against Iraqis killing Kuwaitis they don't know, and against people killing people they don't know and whose names they can't pronounce, and against people who might be known but whose names can't be pronounced. Yet if you know someone, and you can pronounce his name, that's it: you should have the right to kill him. How do you pronounce I/Bennoune," anyway?

1/

Many of the so-called peace activists

on campus are continuing to whine and snivel about what they callI/hypocritical U.S. policy." What did they say when Kuwaiti civilians were tortured and executed? Nothing. When East Germans were spied on and sent to labor camps? Nothing. When the S0viets invaded Afghanistan? Nothing.

Don't be fooled - they only hate U.S. defense policy, not totalitarianism.

David Levin, Co-chair of the SAUSI Action Committee, must be assuming that members of the Revolutionary Workers' League (RWL) are too dumb to read (which, we suppose, is possible), for he publicly announced in the Daily the exact location to which of his rescheduled SAUSI meeting. It was moved (you guessed it!) to avoid further disruption by the RWL. David Levin, part II: He ended the same letter with a cordial invitation: "All members of the community are encouraged to attend this meeting."

C'mon, Dave, we don't like the RWL either, but we don't pretend they aren't part of the community.

HEYRWL: When the revolution comes, will you kill people whose names you can't pronounce? ''DooderState College," the Daily's new cartoon strip, is so mind-numbingly stupid and anti-funny that we couldn't even think of a good joke to mock it. All we can figure is that the cartoonist must have something on the editor.

MICHIGAN REVIEW The Campus Affairs Journal of the University of Michigan Editor-in-Chief........... BrianJendryka Executive Editor.............Adam DeVore Executive Editor................Mark Tulkki Contributing Editor........Clifton Gault Contributing Editor................JeffMuir Pub lisher.........................Mark O. Stem Business Manager.........Stacey Walker Assistant Editor................. Rahul Banta Assistant Editor...........DavidJ. Powell Copy Editor........................Dala Taylor Music Editor.... ,.................Chris Peters Literary Editor.............Adam Gargiola MTS Editor.......................Joseph Klein Francophile ................ Karen Brinkman Staff Chris Bair, Mike Beidler, David Boettger, Mister Boffo, Spencer Carney, Joe Coletti, Brian Cook, Sam Copi, Pete Daugavietis, Vincent DeSantis, Mary Dzon, Athena Foley, John Gnodtke, Reg Goeke, Corey Hill, Jon Hoekstra, Nicholas Hoffman, Omar Javaid, Kishore Jayabalan, Heather Johnston, Gary Mally, Jay McNeill, Bud Muncher, Crusty Muncher, Megan Nelles, Greg Roth, Michael Skinner, Jay Sprout, Doug Thiese, John Transue, Al Tulkki, Anthony Woodlief.

Our Old Publisher......Brian Meadors Editor-at-Large'KKKM"MOJohnJ. Miller

The Michigan Daily, fearful of running out of present-day, campus-related incidents of "racism," reported in their March 14 issue of racism by Americans in Germany ... in 1945.

From Kenyon College in Ohio, comes the one of the silliest politically correct attacks on rational discourse yet. The college recently offered a class entitled Biology of Female Sexuality, according to the Kenyon Observer. Male students are not allowed to speak inclass, and when questioned about this policy, the prof replied, I/men never know when to shut up."

Editor Emeritus.MKKKK..Marc Selinger The Michigan Retlitw is an independent, non-profit, 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 necessarily those of the Rroiew. We welcome letters and articles and encourage comments about the journal and issues discussed in it. Our address is: Suite One 911 North University Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265 (313) 662-1909 Copyright 1991

/i

TJ:le Michigan Review, March ~O, 1991,p. 3

Roving Photographer In light of the Drake's 5 incident, do you plan to patronize Drake's?

by Gary Mally

David Plunkett, LSA Senior: Definitely. I've seen that guy kick out all sorts of people that didn't order, not just someone who might be termed as gay.

Raviv Lavor, LSA Senior: Yes, I do. I feel that there should not be legislation against anyone's phobias.

Rama Kolesnikow, School of Music Senior: Never liked the place. The decorating always got to me.

Greg Boes, Art School: I've met the owner. He's a nice old man. I feel he's a victim of... shall we say ... ageism?

r----------------------------------------------------, Do you ...

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

The Michigan"Review I I

With your tax-deductible donation of $15 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.

I I I I YES! I WOULD LIKE TO HELP! I'm sending my tax-deductible donation of: I __$25 __$50 __$100 __$500 __other I __$15 I I Name: I Address: I -Suite One, 911 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265-

"Yes, I'll Subscribe!"

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The Michigan Review/March 20, 1991, p. 4

From Suite One: Editoria/s

U-MShouldRemain Politically Neutral Among the many ludicrous demands made during the early, heady days of the campus anti-war "movement" was that the University of Michigan should

adopt a public position on the Gulf crisis. On February 1, People of Color Against the War and Racism (PCAWR), with the endorsement.of Students Against U.S. Intervention (SAUSI), insisted that the U-M take a stance "either in SUpport or in opposition to the war in the Gulf." As early as January 18, however, during contract negotiations with the administration, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) demanded that the "university adopt an official anti-war stance."

Although, at the time, U-M negotiators refused GEO's ultimatum noting "the war was not on campus," the. protestors' demands were not entirely without precedent. In the wake of the November 1989 slaying of six Jesuit priests in EI Salvador, the Latin American Solidarity Committee (LA$C),in conjunction with a group of "concerned faculty," demanded that President Duderstadt "make a public statement putting [himself] and the university on record as condemning the events ...and the U.S. aid that made the slaughter possible."

As one justification for their demands, the protestors notoo thatfollowing the 1989 student massacre in Tienamen square, Duderstadt saw fit to join with other university presidents around the country in condemning that action. No less than one business day after a protest by LASe members outside of the Fleming building, Duderstadt sent an open letter of sympathy to the University of Central America in ElSalvador.

Although Duderstadt responded forcefully. against the most recent GEO demands ina lettetdated Janu~ry 18, his past actions clearly detracted from his credibility and fueled the requests made subsequently by PCAWRand SAUSI.1t is for this reason that hisJaudatory assertion that "it is inappropriate for a public university to ta.ke a stance" requires further clarification.

Duderstadt is quite COlTect in noting that "the uriiversity should encourage

debate but the university as an entity could not take a stand. nor should the president." Many who approve of such proclamations reason that as a public institution, funded and governed through the democratic sanction of the resid~nts of the state of Mich~gan, the university must maintain at least some :;emblance of bipartisanship. Others realize that on a practical level, the U-M cannot present itself in open opposition to the views expressed by a majority of public opinion and the legislators who control the .university's purse strings.

The bottom line, however, is. that such pronouncements are either unnecessary or harmful, depending upon the situation. The U-M is ostensibly an institution of higher learning. As such, its primary objective is to encourage debate. Formally sanctioning one view or another with the university' s authority would be inimical to the free and open exchange of ideas - especially in classroom settings.

Duderstadt's reaction to Tienamen.square and the murders in EI Salvador is perhaps analogous to a U-M president in 1945 taking a public stance against the Nazis. Such actions, much like Duderstadt's declarations in 1989, are at best superfluous: how could the question "Where do you stand on this?" be taken as anything but rhetorical? If, as some protestors claim, one side is self-evidently right, it does. not require further legitimization through a public pronouncement by the UniverSity.

The war in the Gulf, conversely, was a highly controversial issue. Students had enough difficulty enjoining a substantiative debate. about the issues without the added pressurethe University's sanctioning one side or the other would have added.

That aside, it is highly unlikely, given the "squeaky wheel" dialectic of the UM's history, that a public stance by the university would represent the majority opinion on campus. Even if it were possible to obtain an accurate reading of campus opinion, however, the U-M and its administrators are presumably in the business of education and not public policy.

New Law, Campus Cops, and Hash Bash On April 6th, U-M students wiU be. able to witness an historic event: the 20th anniversary of the much celebrated Hash Bash. This event, held anually on the Diag,has helped create variousimages for both the U-Mand the city of Ann Arbor over the past two decades,trom that of an ultra-progressive model-dty to a symbol of excess and libertitUsm gone awry.

The issue of ~glegalization,and more specifically marijuana decriminalization, is a complicated debate indeed. The city of Ann Arbor is to be cO'mmended for attempting to Create an atmosphere in which itsdtizens have greater personal freedom, ~. critici.z~.· f()tiIril'lementing its decriminalization oroeram in a haphazard andultinlate1y hatrriful manner.

Two recent local political developments can, and ought~ :~"~ to playa moreforcefulroleitfthisyear's Hash Bash. First, in April of 1990 the voters oithe city of Ann Arbor approved a measure which stiffened the penalty for possession of marijuana: the current lawcaUs for a $25 fine and proof of completion of a substance abuse program for a first offense.

The penalties grow more severe with each subsequentoffense.

Second, over the summer months of 1990 the U-M began implementing its new security deputization plan and currently fields a force of 10 duly deputized law enforcement officers.

While the Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) will be charged with enforcing last April's referendum on April 6th at the Hash Bash,·the U-M security force will be charged with enforcing state marijuana laws. According to state statutes, marijuana possession is a misdemeanor, punishable by a $100 fine or 90 days in jail. As of yet, no plans for security procedures have been finalized, according to Sgt. Vernon Baisden of the Department of Public Safety and Security.

Shirley Clarkson spoke for the Office of the President, explaining, ''It is general policy not to use deputized officers at student gathering." While President Duderstadt has "no hand in security," according to Clarkson, everyone is "very concerned to see that the law is observed."

The voters of Ann Arbor, as well as the U-M regents, have made clear their

desire to have their laws take a harsher stance toward marijuana possession. Yet .in view of the lax enforcement of years past, and considering that at press time the AAPD has no intention of deploYing extra officers to monitor the Hash Bash, one must doubt that the newhlw will be taken seriously. Depending upon one's opinion of the democraticprocess and the extenfto which the majority should be allowed to coerce the individual, one may feel compelled to undertake an act of civil disobedience.

If one chooses to justify "fullparticipation" in the Hash Bash under the rubric of civil disobedience, however, one should bear in mind the everything such a . (' . ) l • committmententails-especiallyassurningfullresponsibility . • . \'T~) ~ for one's actions. Judging by some recent examples, unfortunately, disobedients have been forgetting the importanceoHrue martyrdom. Of the 16 individualscharged with chalking the sidewalks or occuping the Fleming Administration Building during the anti-deputization phase of campus activism, 14 soughtto combat the charges brought against them. While they did not explicitly claim to be civil disobedients, they nevertheless exemplify the noncommittal of the modem activist: they fail to see that the persuasiveness of their actions lies in others seeing them as willing to suffer for something they believe in - it is not the act of disobedience itself that persuades. When NORML announced thatitwill conduct "Operation Decoy," -that is, pass out of legal cigarettes that only smell like marijuana to help protect those smoking the real thing - they mock the very basis of civil disobedience.

There are few threats more dangerous to a civil society than laws which affect a large number of people and which are selectively enforced. Such practices engender disrespect for "the establishment and its laws" and lead one to question whether justice is being achieved. What we have historically seen is a mockery of both justice and civil disobedience. If a law is good enough to have on the books, it should be good enough to enforce; if it is unenforceable or too unpopular to enforce consistently, then perhaps it should not be a law.

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The "City Hall 1" Comes Out

by Jeff Muir . Most caring members of the U-M cornmunityare by now aware of the awfulplightofthe"Drake'sFive,"those unfortunate souls who have suffered yet another disgusting, unprovoked outburst of homophobia on campus.

This time, Truman Tibbals, owner of Drake's Sandwich Shop on North University, served as the oppressing culprit.

It seems that a harmless group of wimmin were unjustly booted out of Drake's because they "looked like lesbians."

As Patrice Maurer, Rackham · graduate student, avowed lesbian,and stalwart member of the Aids Coalition to UnleashPower(ACT-UP)tellsit,"1 hadn't been there more than five minutes when Mr. Tibbals came .and asked .11S to leave. I thought he was just . beiilgowner-like. He came byand said 'Putso~ordersinorgetout.' I showed him my hot chocolate, anotherwOl:nan had ordered hot tea, and the rest were sharing some candy they had bought, and we.showed him the bag."

Nonetheless, that m~an ogre TibbaJs insisted the wimmin in the group who had not ordered driI1ks leave the establishment. . ' ." And then he began making disparaging ~omments about two of the .women's looks - they had very · short hair and they had leather jackets on."

"That's when 1first concluded that we were being ejected because we looked like lesbians," says Maurer.

Maurer, ACT-UP, and the rest of.

the "Drake's Fi veil are demanding tha t Tibbals refund the cost of their candy and beverages, and that he donate $100 for "homophobia education" to the UM funded' ~sbian and Gay Male Programs Office.

Tibbals is in his mid-eighties, short of sight and hard of hearing. He insists that the whole charade is merely a misunderstanding, and that his actions were both proper and consistent with his past policy on giving free-loaders the old heave-ho.

"I didn't know they were lesbians until they told me and I thought the other two were boys," he explains. ''There were a group of six people inhere, four women and two boys. The two boys hadn't ordered and I told them that they either had to leave or order and I guess the girls got mad and left."

Many people have come foreword in support of Tibbals since the Fruity Five begaI) their campaign against him.

This support bridges the homosexual and heterosexual communities. More people showed 4patthe"Drake~~Fivel! rally insuppOrl of Tibbals than did Maurersupporters~

KareriBusinski,and Ann Arbor resident said ."1 am ashamed and embarrassed to be called a lesbian after this incident. Mr. Tibb.als kicks people outofhis restaurant all of the time. The man is 83 years old. All he wants to do is maintain business so he can go home at night.and pay the bills."

But Maurer and ACF-UP will have none of ,that. "If there was in fact a misunderstariding/' Maurer insists,

Letter to' th'e :editor ,

I have only recently begun reading the Michigan Review and 1 am already addicted to it. I am particularly fond of '~ut wait, there's Muir/' and I ju~t . . want to congratulate you on yoUr insightfulnessand wish you continued success. Give the leftists here on camPl;!s all the Hell you're capable of. Keep

up the good work, because without you, we'd all be forced to read the Daily, and nobody can stand that much liberal propaganda. Also, cheers to the writers of the "Serpent's Tooth." Keep on publishing!

Anthony E. Lashbrook Engineering Freshman

"Mr. Tibbals . could write us a letter explaini'n g that,but he hasn't."

Well I can certainly sympathize with Patrice and the other members of the "Drake's Five." Just this past August, I suffered a similar fate.

I was attending an ACT~UP rally held at Ann Arbor City Hall. ACT-UP was protesting the arrests of the "Adrian 17/, a group of fine; upstandingyoung homosexuals who had been arrested for engaging in some homosexual hanky-panky ata public parkin Adrian.

I was handing out copies of an open letter addressed to the leaders of ACT-UP which requested that they justify some of their numerous demands, many of which had nothing to do with either homosexuality or AIDS, such as a demand for £ree, U-M financed abortions on demand.

When it was discovered that I was not a supporter of ACT-UP, I was surrounded, subjected to verbal insults, attacked by paper-wad throwing mobs of leather-dad creative-types, and forced toleaye what.wassupposed to be a public forum at a public place.

That.' s when 1 first concluded that J was being run out because I looked like a

heterosexual.

-

From now on, Iwtsh to be known as the "City Hall L" I demand that ACT- UP donate $100 towards the establishment of a "Come Over to the Other Side" counselingcenter.lalsodemandthatMaurer and her goons be the first to attend a "heterosexual workshop," (sort of like a Diversity class, you know) and that

Clarification: In the October 1990 issue, the

Michigan Review printed a storY by

Athena Foley e,ntitled ;'Exploring Academic Ghettos," It lzas c,ome to our attention that several readers misconstrued certain sections of the article.

First, the University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and AfriCiln 'Studies did not exist in 1978.Second, the U-M history department offered Barbara Fields a teaching position in March 1978, although she did not formally receive her Ph.D. degree until May of that year. Fields, however, had completed the requirements for the degree in January of 1978. At least one other.candidate for the position ·had been awarded the Ph.D, degree before 1978.

they refund my printing expenSes and write a formal apology for the anguish they have caused me.

Further, I demand that all responsible and caring members of the U-M community boycott the Rubiyat, the Flame, and "Wimmin's Night" at the Blind Pig until such action has been taken.

If the whole nasty mess at city hall was merely a misunde~tandin~ then the perpetually-protesting accomplices can write me a letter explaining it as such.

After all, the burden of proof ought to properly be placed on the accused, not the accuser. Or is it the other way around?

Jeft Muir is a junior in general studies and a contributing editor for the Re-

view. His name rhymes with "skewer" or "fur/' depending upon whom you consult.

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The MiChigan Review, March 20, 1991, p. 6

Opinion

, Affirmative Action Destroys Human Spirit

'''k.

by Kishore Jayabalan The welfare state "is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.

We must and shall get out of this business."

To whom can one attribute this sage remark? Ronald Reagan? William F. Buckley,Jr.?RussellKirk? All wrong.

How ironic that none other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt, perhaps the president most closely associated with the welfare state, recognized the moral poison that it creates. While Roosevelt stressed the temporary nature of the welfare state, the administration at the University of Michigan has yet to learn this important lesson.

The U-M has engaged in many welfare programs, and perhaps the most destructive is Affirmative Action, which seeks to forcefully elevate certain groups not on the basis of merit, bu ton the basis of race. According to the Michigan Mandate, which is an evolving plan that seeks to build a modelofa "multicultural" community on campus, $27 million was allocated in 1988 for minority programs. These funds have gone to faculty hiring and development, student recruitment, admissions and counseling, graduate support, and research, and the establishment of the Office of Minority Affairs. Despite the seeming comprehensiveness of this program, the administration apparently wants to expand the program even further. Perhaps this is what the lauded "second phase" of the Michigan Mandate intends to accomplish.

Despite verbal commitment to intensified minority retention efforts, it is difficult to discover exactly what the "second phase" might entail, as even Shirley Clarkson, Assistant to the President, admitted that this "second phase" was merely a rhetoricru device: there has been no addition to the original Michigan Mandate.

Nev.ertheless, Vice-Provost for MinorlttAffairs Dr. Charles Moody, who currently heads minority retention efforts, proposes a "four-dimensional model" for carrying out the Michigan Mandate: (1) Access,ormakingthe UM more available to non-whites; (2) Process, the connection between policy and practice; (3) Achievement, based on actual merit, rather than stereotypical expectations; and (4) Transfer,· which includes the mentoring and sponsorship of minority groups; such as the Black Student Union. Despite the refined presentation of his vision~

ary quadripartite model, Moody declined to comment on the projected costs of the model's implementation or its estimated effectiveness.

According to the Michigan Mandate, the U-Mhasa social responsibility to nurture the members of certain races on campus. An official from the Affirmative Action Office who wished to remain anonymous stated that only "under-represented" minorities were eligible for affirmative action policies - that is, only blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. Asian Americans are not technically "under-represented," and Arab Americans, accordingtotheofficial,"areprobablyunderrepresented. But it' saIl about politics."

According to Moody, the stereotypical expectations directed at minorities, (for instance, that Asians are expected to perform well in math and science courses and blacks are not expected to perform well in English classes), and the U-M's "corporate climate," which is dominated by oppressive white males, who intentionally beat down all others, impair minority retention. Again, when asked the price of changing U-M's climate, Moody would not predict how much (in addition to the $27 million already allocated for minority programs in 1988) would be spent.

Moody's lack of information about the specific cost increases only weakens his plan's desirability. Yet even more doubtful is the desirability of the affirmative action platform as a whole. A goal of the Affirmative Action office is to improve the environment for minorities; yet the unnamed official in the office remarked candidly, "I don't know whether we can fix things," but the administration "has to interfere with individual liberty." This intrusion on liberty includes such policies as the U-M speech code. In light of this attitude, one wonders what the Affirmative Action office means by "improvemettt" and at what cost, financial or otherwise, it will come.

The statements and actions of the U-M administration, moreover,are simply degrading. Thomas Sowell, a black economist who operates out of Stanford's Hoover Institute, writes about the difference between equal opportunity and affirmative action. "'Equalopportunity'lawsand policies require that individuals be judged on their qualificatio!1s as individuals, without regard to race, sex, etc. 'Affirmative Action' requires that thefbe

judged with regard to such group membership, receiving preferential or compensatory treatment." The U-M has blatantly mistaken these two concepts. While trying to help minorities, they have created an exclusionary welfare system that not only destroys the human spirit, but that also tears down the self-respect, dignity, and esteem of minority students. These students are led to believe that they cannot succeed at the U-M unless the administration makes special efforts.

The U-M's lowered expectations add to the destructive effect. ByestabI

Charles Moody lishingminority enrollment targets, the administration shows a willingness to admit students with inferior academic standards just because they are members of an "under-represented"minority. Thus, the U-M becomes something other than the very best academic institution in order to destroy the evil "corporate climate."

In particular, the U-M has shown great bias in admitting th,ese "underrepresented" minorities.•While high school students who live in the suburbs are notified on their admission to the U-M in four to six w~ks, inner city high schools benefit from an on-site admissions process in which students learn almost immediately if they are U-Mbound.

Additionally, the U-M applies a process called SCUGA to add extra points to a student's grade point average (GPA), ba;;ed on special considerations. Accord~g to the Detroit Free Press Magazine, the SCUGA system can add .3 to a student's GP A based on the counselor's evaluation of the cur-' .riculum at a student's school. By defi-

nition, the "s" in SCUGA stands for the school- be it inner city, suburban, or private;the"C" forcurriculum-weak or strong; the "G" for geographic; the "A" for alumni; and the "u" is for unusual - whatever the counselors deem as out of the ordinary. One can only guess as to how many extra points are added to a GP A due to the color of the student's'skin, if it is unusual. The U-M truly does sacrifice academic standards in order to accommodate certain groups.

Ironically, President Duderstadt remarked in an interview with the Review in September, 1988 that "It's very difficult to achieve excellence [at the U-M] because every time you do, you get accused of arrogance or elitism or whatever, and there's a tendency to pull you back down to mediocrity, the mire of mediocrity." Itappearsasif the U-M is now fully engulfed by this "mire," and Duderstadt himself is not guiltless.

Rather than expanding the alread y entrenched "welfare state" approach, the U-Mshould encourage all students to, (pardon the cliche), pick themselves up by their bootstraps through selfhelp programs, such as the studentrun study groups that exist now. To this idea, Moody exclaimed, "How can they pick themselves up by their bootstraps when they don't have any shoes on their feet?" It appears that the U-Mhasaccepted the responsibility to "put shoes on the feet" of minority students, acting as a charitable lending hand rather than the setting for higher education.

There is some disagreement within the administration on these issues. The Executive Director of University Relations, Walter Harrison, agreed on the effectiveness of self-help programs.

"Student-run groups would be more successful,·~ especially. since students know their own needs," stated Harrison. 'He denied· that affirmative action was !l. political process and instead me~ely labeled it a "necessary" one. It could be that Harrison's job description requires hil!\ to hold this opinion. There does exist some hope against the statist views in the administration, be it an infitesimally small glimmer of light in an enormous, dark chasm of irrational welfare statism.

.,"11

Kishore Jayabalan is a junior in economics and political .ience and a staff writer for the Review.

•

The Michigan Review, March 20, 1991, p. 7

Opinion

Michigan Student Assembly's $6.77 Tyranny In February, the Review announced an essay contest on "Why MSA Student Fees Should Be Voluntary." After hours of heated debate, we have declared our winners. Ariel Fox was the grand prize winner and will receive a check for $125. His essay is printed below. Albert Beck and Ned Harris received $40 and $25 for 2nd and 3rd prizes, respectively. The Review would like to thank all its entrantseach one is a winner in his own way.

by Ariel Fox I am glad I have a fDrum to. CDmplain about the idiocy ef the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) tax imposed en the student body. The MSA levy rells student meney into. the hands Df a hypocritical, self-righteous student gevernment.

Let me begin with the whele Christian CDrnersto.ne Fello.wship (CCF) Co.ntrDversy. I'm talking about the guys that invade yo.ur ro.o.m when yo.u have an English co.mpo.sitio.n due at 5 o.'clock. They always want to. raise

a hairy debate, asking something like, "Do. YDU believe in Cod?" They anno.y me as much as anybody, but hey, free speech, right? I can live with that.

One day, hDwever, I'm crossing the Diag, and I reco.gnize all the Go.dfearing faces waiting fDr a demDnstratio.n to. begin. So.me Jesus thing, I figure.

Then the guitar CDmes Dn and a CDuntry hick starts singing "Go.d hates queers and so do. I!" Needless to. say, I keep walking.

I can deal with it. But I sho.uldn't have to. pay fDr it.

Because $6.77 Df my tuitiDn do.llars go. to. MSA every term, I didn't want the church to. be able to. get funding . I took pleasure in MSA's effo.rt to. nudge Dut CCF. But the ACLU activist in me kno.ws that freedo.m fDr all is just that: freedo.m fo.r all! My $6.77be damned. I was in a dilemma. I didn' t want to. suppo.rt the CCF with my mo.ney, bu t I knew MSA was trying to. exclude a gro.up based o.n its speech and beliefs.

The o.nly so.lu tio.n tha t wo.uld make me comfo.rtable is letting every gro.up, o.r-

ganizatio.n, and publicatio.n pay fo.rits o.wn damn stuff!

No. lDnger wo.uld yo.u be angry about being fDrced to. support a gro.up that disgusts yo.u (everybody can find at least ene that nauseates them). And think of the fringe benefits. If YDU didn't pay for MSA, YDU probably wouldn't vo.te for it, and if yo.u didn't vote for it, it wo.uld no. longer have a claim to being your representative. MSA would be exposed fo.r what it is: a shrill gro.up of radicals representing a shrill group ofwacko.s.

No IDnger wo.uld you be fDrced to. support a "representative student gDvernment" whese views are representative o.f no mo.re than the radical fringe element on campus. No. lDnger could MSA claim to be representing the entire student body when it makes its radical, stupid, and ineffective declarations on foreign policy. No IDnger would you be fo.rced to pay for representatives' friends to fly to. Central America and the West Bank calling themselves YDur representa ti ves while

wasting your meney. And best Df all, you wDuldn't have to. deal with a loon in a gDrilla suit standing in fro.nt ef the UgLi trying to solicit yo.ur vo.te.

I admit that I agree with some Df MSA's positio.ns. But that is irrelevant, because even when I agree with them, I recDgnize tha t MSA represen ta ti ves act nDt Dut Df CDncern fDr their constituents' views; they act o.nly according to. their personal agendas, which they will press regardless Df whether they are in agreement with the majo.rity o.f students, Dr if the issue they are addressingiseven partofMSA'sdDmain. Why does MSA have a fDreign policy? It is simply Dut of bounds fDr any student go.vernment to. have foreign concerns.

MSA doesn't care if a majorityo.fits co.nstituents disappro.ve o.f its fDreign policy. MSA takes the students' mDney whether they like it or no.t. That's taxa ti on withou t represen ta tion. It rna y o.nly be a $6.77 tyranny, but it is tyranny all the same.

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The Michigan Review, March 20,1991, p. 8

Interview

Republican ·Mayor Fights forRe~lection of

On March 15, c:orey R. Hili the Review ~nterviewed Ann .Arbor Mayor GeraldJernigan,aRepublican.

Jernigan is up£or reelection this April

loss of income for the City, represents a conflict of interest for you since you are both the Mayor and a university employee. How do you respond to this? .

REVIEW: Whatdo you consider your major accomplishments as mayor?

JERNIGAN: I think it's just political posturing. There reallyis no conflict of i .

'

JERNIGAN: Well, I think there has actually beenseveral. We've worked real hard on getting the crime problem down, and getting the cooperation of the University of Michigan. We balanced a budget that had a substantial deficit when we first took over; we now have a balanced budget and some money in the bank. We provided some housing in the the downtown area. We got an opportunity to provide affordable housing, single-family owner-occupied affordable housing. Unfortunately, it was turned down by the political process. So I think we've done a good job - the city is in pretty dam good shape.

interest at all. I find it somewhat disappoin ting tha t people pu t dollars before safety. My concern is that with more police officers, the University campus will undoubtedly be safer. And trying to put a money value on those kind of things, I think is very unfortunate.

REVIEW: Could you address allegations that the Ann Arbor Police Department is racially insensitive? More specifically, could you comment on the macing incident in South Quad?

JERNIGAN: I have read the police repo~. I have tried to get documentation that those slurs were in fact made by the police officers who were there.

The people who originally made the allegations wouldn't come forward and

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REWEW: To maintain the services that you outlined, would you advocate a tax increase if you thought that it was necessary?

JERNIGAN: No. REVIEW: Some pundits have suggested that the City's acceptance ofUM's deputization, which resul ted in a

was

REVIEW: Do you think the U-M should continue to enjoy its tax-exempt status in Ann Arbor?

REVIEW: If reelected what will be your priorities, outside of continuing with what has been done so far?

JERNIGAN: Unfortunately, we have some continuing solid waste problems.

I think they'll need to be resolved quickly. People who are on those committees don't seem to be able to bring those problems to a resolution.

In the future, the city is not going to grow anywhere near as rapidly as it has in the past,so that puts a different perspective on the kinds of things that ,we have to do and the kind ofissueswe are going to be facing. We're not going the be facing as many of the development issues as we have in the past. It will be a program much more in tune with improving the services that we already have such as the roads, sidewalks, and bridges. And protect those kinds of things~ We're going to try to clean up our parks so we can use them more than we have in the past. Things like that.

say that for sure, Qf at least. thatis what the police report said. Idopl~tomeet . some of the studentswhQ we~there. I was not aware that theywereunhappy . with the way the 'proce5s beirtg handled. I intend toroeetWfth them to . see what, if anything, we can do from the City stimdpoin~; I think in,the fu.

I ture we heed ·to meet . with students before some of the parties to .try to set some ground rules. They can indicate to us if they will need our help and how they would like it to be in situations like that.

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JERNIGAN: It is not a question for me to answer,. It is a state law and I really have no comment nor the . ability to change it.

REVIEW: Some have suggested that., because of the tax-exempt status enjored by the U-M, the City loses several dollars by decreasing the property tax revenues on important properties.

JERNIGAN: I think that there isno question tha tif all those properties were taxed, we would be receiving a lot more money than we are now. On the other hand, the University provides a stable employment base and they aren't likely to pick up and walk out of town like an automobile factory. Itcutsboth ways.

REVIEW: Doyou think that by enact-

ing laviSh programs and services for . the homeleSs, it would merely attract other homeless people .from surrounding communities, thereby crtating~ever-increasing need for more services? ·' .

JERNIGAN: I ' could never see us reaching a point where weare creating lavish programs. I think there is. no question that the programs we now have are attracting people from other communities to come to Ann Arbor.

There .has always been a problem deciding who, out of that population, is anAnnArborresident. Wejusthaveto deal with the people that are here, as best we can with resources that we have.

REVIEW: How would you like to improve the City's relationship with the University?

JERNIGAN: I think the University definitely ought to pay us (the city) more money, than they do right now.

Ilike to see tha t done in a way tha tthey recei ve services for those dollars, They clearly benefit from our police protection that is around them. They do pay us for fire calls. Jerry Schleicherhas a terrific idea. He would like to add one dollar to the cost of a football and basketball ticket, and have that money turned over to the City as a payment in lieu of taxes. That way it would not impactthe University's general fund, a lot of that money would be paid by people who live outside of town. There are a lot of benefits, there would be a substantial amount of money into City coffers. It seems like a "win-win" si tuation.

REVIEW: Whatdoyou like most about Liz Brater?

JERNIGAN: I really have no comment on Liz Brater.

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The Michigan Review, March 20, 1991, p. 9

Interview

Mayoral ChallengerWant$ RefQrm "

On March 16, Corey Hill of the Review interviewed Democra~ Liz Drater, the . challenger in the upcoming mayoral election.

REVIEW: What are your priorities if elected mayor?

BRATER: My main concerns are to get the city running more efficiently than it is now. The way that we have been doing things in City Hall for the past 50 years is not good enough for 1991. We are collecting a lot of money from the citizens of Ann Arbor, we need to take a good hard look at our system of taxation and find out why it is that, with all the money the city is collecting, we can't deliver basic services more effecti vel y.

Another priority is to continue to improve the management of our solid waste systems, which is something I have been working on since I came on the council; to try to clean up this mess that we have with solid waste. I have been working on recycling and to get the recycling ordinance passed. I have been working on downtown issues: trying to get more people into downtown Ann Arbor, both in business and housing. I am trying to improve transportation 'systems, and just looking ahead to Ann Arbor's future to try to preserve the quality of life here - the diversity, the human scale of our neighborhoods and our downtown.

REVIEW: There is some concern that the University of Michigan enjoys taxexempt status, thereby decreasing property tax revenue on important properties. Do you think the U-M should continue to enjoy its taxexempt status?

BRATER: The city has the great benefit from having the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The city of Ann Arbor would not be the city of Ann Arbor without the University of MiChigan. U-M also benefits from the great and unique qualities of the city of Ann Arbor and the interesting downtown, the beautiful parks, and the neighborhoods that surround the campus. It is a very symbiotic relationship and it is foolish to try pit one against the other. But the fact of the matter is U-Moccupiesa greatd,eal of land within the city of Ann Arbor which is tax-exempt, which presents a problem for the city in terms of raising revenues to provide services such as

.-

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maintaining the streets and bridges and the police and fire. One of the problems we have is trying to get an eqUitable formula to get payment in lieu of taxes, for services that we directly provide to the university such as fire protection. I think there is a lot work to be done in terms of networking with the people at the top level at the . university and also at the state. This is a problem that is not unique to Ann Arbor; all university communities in the state have similar problems. The state benefi ts from ha ving an excellent public higher education system; the thing tha t need s to be addressed is a statewide issue. The problem needs to be addressed statewide because the whole system of property taxes is based on escalating property values, which are not necessarily keeping pace with people's income.

REVIEW: Do you believe that enacting lavish or generous programs and services for Ann Arbor's homeless would attract the homeless froni surrounding communities, thearby creating an ever-increasing need for more services?

BRATER: Well I hardly call any of the programs the city of Ann Arbor has lavish. It is unlikely tha't anything lavish would occur under our current budget situation. In the last decade, the federal funding for the homeless has decreased 75percent under the Reagan and Bush administrations. It's never been a service that could be adequately funded by local governments alone.

Local governments have always depended on the federal government and, to some extent, state governmentS to subsidize housing for people with low incomes. It is sort of a myth to think the homeless people in Ann Arbor are somehow attracted here from some other community. Every community has homelessness, every community has people who have fallen on hard times. I think we in Ann Arbor, as well as people across the country, need to address the problems of homelessness

'

.

as well as the root causes of it.

REVIEW: What is your posi~,oh.re颅 garding the privatization ofp#bl~c services to compensate fortl.te~x颅 pected reduction in state fundirigto the city? .

complaint against the . police departn)ent;forthe police to investigate -itisnotgQ~gtobethemostobjEictive

body when it 路is investigating ) tself.

There have been proposals thattl1ere be someklridof structure for citizen review fora case like this. I thirikthat would be appropriate. By and ,large, the officers of the Ann Arbor Police Department do a very good job. 'O nce in a while there is an incident like this, where there is an individual officer that is not behaving up to ourexpectations and that needs to be examined. It is a matter of having the message come from the top, the Mayor, the Council, and the Chief of Police, that this behavior will not be tolerated. If this is the case after an investigation and we find that there has been some breach of conduct, we need to hold these people accountable. This of course applies to all of our departments, but it is a particular concern because of the power individual officers have, REVIEW: How do you view the University's decision to deputize their own police force as it relates to the city's budget?

BRATER: I believe that privatization needs to be examined, but it needs to be examined with great scrutiny. It is sometimes the case that privatization looks like a quick fix solution butin the long run it does not end up saving the city money. Especially in the area of solid waste, where we have a situation where there is not a free market opera ting; there is a couple of giant companies who control the industry without being regulated asa utility. Itisa natural monopoly - you do not want a bunch of companies collecting garbage, you want to have a unified approach to it.

If privatization is going to happen it needs to be regulated like any other utility. What we need to address is the issues of what are the basic services that government is there to provide.

REVIEW: If you are elected Mayor, how would you handle inctdents similar to the December macirig incident in South Quad? ..

BRATER: I think the role the Mayor can play is one of accountability. The Police must observe equitable practices on campus and across the city. This is a situation that needs to be fully investigated. Sometimes citizens raise the issue that it is not adequate for the police department, when there is a

BRATER: The U-M is autonomous from the city of Ann Arbor. The U-M has state-enabling legisla tion allowing itto deputize officers. Althoughitmight not be the route that I would have chosen, that is the fact we are faced with and we have to make the best of the situation. I would not have sent a letter as the present Mayor did endorsing the idea. I think that it (the city's position on the U-M's intention of deputization) was something that should have come before the entire council for consideration in our advisory capacity. We should have been involved, but unfortunately it was not brought to our attention until after the fact.

I think it is very much a concern, thatthere must be some accountability to the citizenry in terms of protecting people' scivil rights and human rights, on the city level as well as the university level. I think it is imperative that we accept the fact the campus police force has been established and we do everything we can to make a cooperative relationship between the Ann Arbor police and the campus police. We must make sure that they are all acting professionally and effectively and in a way that way that conforms to the laws of the city.

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The Michigan Review, March 20,1991, p. 10

Interview

Conservative Coalition Comes of Age up part of the budget. One of the biggest problems in MSA is the fact that it takes $SOO,OOO from the students and ' only $27,000 of that is budgeted directly back to the students. That's something that we really want to change, and part of the problem is that

On March 13,Jay Sprout of the Review talked with Jamie Green, Conservative Coalition's presidential candidate for the upcoming MSA elections.

Green is an LSA junior majoring in history.

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REVIEW: How do you expect to win considering the seemingly liberal at- '15 ~ titude of the U of M campus? ~

~

GREEN: I don't believe that the Uni- ~ versity of Michigan is an inherently 0 liberal campus. I don't like to use the word "liberal" either because the leftists on campus feel that the liberals are too conservative. A comment that I've often made, and sometimes it's taken too seriously, is that if you accept the twopartysysteminthiscountry,you're a conservative. Those on the far left here are so virulently anti-American they just reject the entire system.

REVIEW: Do you think that there will be a problem with negative campaigning in the upcoming elections?

GREEN: You always run the risk of' mudslinging in an election. Many people accuse the Conservative Coalition of negative campaigning. In the past, that's often what our opponents have tried to do. But we feel that if you have opponents that continually change their name to try and fool the student body into thinking that they're moderates, one has to point that out.

We are a party that doesn't change our name and we've been around forthree

years.

You have a bunch of people who are very concerned with getting into office and sometimes they can go a little overboard. I don't feel that we run , a negative campaign, I think we run an aggressive campaign. If you're not aggressive in trying to reach the voters, I don't think you're going to do very

well.

REVIEW: What will your platform consist of?

every one of these 13 committees and comniissions have their own budgets.

Another thing 1'd like to implem~nt is a plan whereby MSA would mandate areturn of the funds collected from a certain school back to that school.

Every student per term gives $6.77 to MSA and a lot of the smaller schools such as Engineering do not get funding back representative to the number of students that they have and to the money that they contribute to MSA. If elected, I will work with the individual school governments to see that the majority of the funds that they contribute will be returned to their school and see how that can best be done.

Other than that, some of our older programs [remain in the platform); we object to any overseas fact-finding missions and we're in favor of automatic student group recognition. Now all of the parties say they're in favor of that and we welcome them aboard. I think it's a very popular issue they're trying to jump on because they know it's a popular issue. We've been working on if, we have a plan that's ready to be implemented.

GREEN: It's a combination of things we've always run on and some new REVIEW: What do you feel will be the ideas for the reform of MSA. I think most controversial plank on your that all the parties agree that MSA has platform? trouble representing the students. We would like to reorganize the MSA buGREEN: Probably just the general difreaucracy - reassess the committees ference of opinion that we have with and commissions that MSA currently consists of and see whether or not some of the other parties about how to they're ~li ~ecessarY ,'~atiSe they take - "do tllings. I thinK iYs 'more of aphn6-

sophical difference than a particular part of the platform. The other parties' - though they don't profess this around election time - first reaction when there's a problem on campus is to protest, toconfrontandmakealotof noise, whereas our first reaction is to get down to business and see what we can . do, to see what kind of plan we can work out and what kind of imagination we can use to solve a problem. I think that that (particular) philosophical difference is the one to cause the , most debate. We debate every week at MSA about what approach is best. Some of the parties I know are now saying "Well we want a combinationofnegotiationand confrontation," but they really don't have much practice at negotiation.

We've been accused of trying to hinder free speech by opposing protests. We certainly don't oppose protests, that's one thing I would like to say. We would not try to prevent people from using their free speech. A radical solution is just that, a radical solution.

If used as a first resort in every situation, it's not useful and it's not going to work. We feel that the majority of the student body does not feel that that's the best way to deal with every situation. That's why we feel that MSA should stop sponsoring every single one of these.

REVIEW: You me,n tioned Burks' and Van Valey's activities. How visible have you been in campus politics until now?

GREEN: I joined the Conservative Coalition in 1989. I ran in the Winter election when Aaron (Williams) was elected (to the presidency) and I was elected along with him as an LSA representative. I was not re-elected the following year. I was just elected to the

Assembly again in the Fall as an LSA representative.

Typically, representatives of the Conservative Coalition party do not catch the headlines as much as the opposition because a lot of them work on the budget committee. They're not out on the Diag, they're not out there with signs, but they're working very hard on student concerns.

Unfortunately, the opposition is not concerned with bringing publicity towards those things, they'r,e concerned with getting publici ty for themselves and a whole host of issues that MSA really has no concern with. I've been a member of the budget committeeforthreeye~rs, that's where Idomy primary work. That's the most valuable function of MSA, helping student organizations and students out with their activities.

REVIEW: Tell me about your opponent Angela Burks.

GREEN: (Laughs) This is one I could get into trouble on. I think her platform betrays her real pOSitions on a number of issues. Angie has been a part of the Van Valey administration fm; the past year. She has taken partin every single protest or at least in every single issue that they (the protests) dealt with. She is trying to present herself as a moderate. My job is to basically tell the truth.

I do not think she's a moderate and I think that, quite frankly, the fact that they see fitto change the name [of their party) every single term they run demonstrates the fact that they are trying to hide something from the students.

While her platform may seem, on the surface, quite moderate, it's a smoke screen. I think that it's important to remember that last year, Jennifer Van Valey ran a very moderate platform saying that she didn't support factfinding trips (and that) she wasn't going to protest every issue as a first resort. Unfortunately, it's happened many times before where student leaders seem to forget their campaign promiSes after they get elected.

Thanks, but no thanks Angela Burks, presidential candidate for the Common Sense party, refused to interView wi th the Review before the election. ''Maybe afterwards," she said. We thought you, the reader, should know this.

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Interview

E.S.P. On Friday, March 15, Carey Brian Meadors of the Review interviewed Eric Stempien, presidential candidate of the Emphasizing Student Power (ESP) party. Stempien is a sophomore in LSA majoring in political science.

REVIEW: What is ESP's platform?

STEMPIEN: The main part of our platform deals with how MSA is viewed by the students. We label it "MSA accountability" and what we mean by that is bringing MSA to the students. We have specific things in our platform that we'd like to implement, such as requiring MSA to "table" in their respective schools, Whereby you'd have MSA students sitting in the fishbowl with a sign that says "I'm your MSA representative, come talk to me." It would be a chance for students to tell them concerns, issues. Even if nothing productive comes out of it every single time someone sits down they're not necessarily always going to get these great ideas from the students and that's not really what we expectwhat we expect is more of the MSA representative telling the student what they're doing than the student giving suggestions. The students need to be much more informed and tabling is one good way to do it.

REVIEW: Who do you see as your main competition, Conservative Coalition (CC) or Common Sense?

STEMPIEN: They're both the main competition. These two parties represent the extremes on campus and all they do is throw mud at each other and what happens is that the students don't get represented. What we're saying is "avoid this stupid partisan pblitics and get down to trying to actually do something."

REVIEW: Give an example of an 'eXtremeplank in COJlU11on Sense and an extreme plank in CC and what the middle, ESP, position would be.

STEMPIEN: I can give you an example from this campaign. The extreme position of Common Sense being that they want to go out and protest. There are a lot of times where they say they will negotiate but the people running with them have not expressed that in any sense. They'vealwaysbeenfirstto go out and protest. They'll protest ~nything first. All that does is end up

New K·ids on the Block

making the regents really angry, and they won't ever want to talk to you. CC and Jamie Green will not advocate a protest. He (Green) does not think that we should protest.. Now, that again doesn't solve the problem. He thinks that everything should be negotiation.

The problem with only • negotiating is that you don't go in with any strength. Theregents,of course, have all the strength in our hierarchy here on campus. If you don't mobilize students at all, you're not going to have any strength at negotiating.

You have to approach the regents first in a very civilized, very orderly manner, and say "Hey, here's what we want, can you give it to us?"

Nine times out of ten, of course, the regents will say "no." Then what you do is you have to go back to the stu,dents and get the students worked up about the issue.

Once you get them mobilized, and you get them going, then you go back to the regents again and sayl/Hey, we've got all this support."

tary. One thing that would be very important to help alleviate that is the University should help fund MSA. If the funds become voluntary, whatever number of students give their funds to the University should match.

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S1'EMPIEN:If you're asking me if I think MSA funds should be voluntary, personally I don't, but it's not up to me to decide. If it comes down to it, it should be up to the students to decide.

You can't-cutout MSA,you can't allow students to do that because the students aren't informed enough about MSA. There are two steps in finding out if funds should be voluntary. First studems have to find out what MSA is and what it does, because if they don't know they can't make that decision.

Then the second thing you do is put a referendum. I would be in support of (this) eventually- not right nowhaving a-referendum asking the students if they want their funds volun.

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REVIEW: What do you think about the speech code? Do you think that racist speech should be allowed?

Should the KKK be able to hold a rally on the Diag?

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REVIEW: Is there anything you would like to add?

REVIEW: Which basically the students pay for because the University gets it out of student tuition.

STEMPIEN: Right.

REVIEW: You're just routing it through one more bureaucracy.

REVIEW: Do you think that ESP can • STEMPIEN: But that doesn't matter, better spend student money than the way MSA currently spends it? because then MSA has more money, MSA has more ability to work for stuSTEMPIEN: Yes. REVIEW: Shouldn't students be able to spend student money? Why shouldn't MSA fees be voluntary?

Who can best spend the students' money?

dents.

STEMPIEN: There is one thing that I would like to deal with and that is_ relations with regents. I think the students should have one long tenn goal in mind- one long term goal being a student regent, elected by the students.

Its a bigger office than President of MSA, much more powerful.

The thing that we advocate is that the regents are now fed up with students and studerltactivists.. .1 think that they (Action) get way, way too involved with world issues and bring them onto campus. I mean they bring issues into campus and I think we have enough to deal with as it is. The regents aren't going to listen to us anymore. I think that the regents have given up on students. Whatthat means is that we aren't going to get any satisfaction out of yelling and screaming or negotiating.

Schlafly and Weddington to Debate Abortion.at Rackham

by Jeff Muir Phyllis Schlafly, a noted conservative columnist and one of the most respected anti-feminist commentators will be debating the issue of abortion with Sarah Weddington, the attorney for Ms. Roe ih the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.

The debate is sponsored by the University ActiVtfy Center (UAC) Viewpoint Lecture Series Committee, and is one of the first Student 5()apbox events presented by the UAC. Traditionally, the UAC has sponsored only lectures, not debates. , A smattering of controversy stuTOunds the event. Apparently, the UAC requested that the Women's Studies Department co-sponsor the eventwhich they initially agreed to do. But, according to David Bernstein, chair of the Viewpoint Lecture Series Committee, upon learning that the event wou~ be a debate format and that Ms. Schlafly would be presenting the case against abortion, they backed out.

The non-profit event will take place at Rackham Auditorium on 21 March 1991 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $2.00 and are available at the Michigan Union ticket office, Ticketrnaster outlets, and at the door.

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Circus Continued from page 1 " and Common Sense are campaigning applied and was selected to be interas political moderates. Enhancing this vjewed. This time, however, CC declaim is a new plank calling for autocliried. maticgroup recognition by MSA. InIn the following election, Burks terestingly, when introduced last year appeared as the MSAvjce-presidential , by CC,the position was attacked by candidate for Jennifer Van Valley and many of tlle ESP and Common Sense the almost diametrically opposite Ac- ' candi~ates as racist, sexist, and tion .party. homophobic. . InadditionToddOchoa,theCom~ Eschewing all pretense of modmonSense vjce-presidential candidate, eration i~ nus year's upstart, AIAC, ~~tJle ignominious distinction of be- . .. . whichap~!lrs to be dealing with their mgariested for chaIIqngJudging from ·,grea!disappointment at Iraq's capitupast experience, however, his action lationbltheGulfwarbyfieldingaslate certainIydoesnotdisqualifyhimfrom of candidates. Ostensibly, they are serving as MSA Yice-president, as Seeking to prevent such an "imperialBurl<s, .the current Vice-President, reo:. .... ist" .tr~vesty happening again. centIy admitted to forging a fellow ' . . . , .• lri·addition to making the univercandidates signature. Burks justified ' sity'fthe'tool of the oppressed insociher action by claiming that the forgee ety/'AIAC is calling for open admiswas a fellow African American. She sions/h~ tuition, the abolition of the was fined $5 by MSA for the orde.al.

Board of Regents, and the removal of In the current election, both ESP allccimpus police officers.

A principle figure in the AIACcast . this campus cQl1ap~," he adds, "they of characters is paul Carmouche, a ' simply attempt to project theirproblong-time veteran of Aids Coalition To lemon us."

Unleash Power (ACT-UP), United Green believes the author of the Coalition AgainstRacism (UCAR),and Daily articleJound evidence of what the Revolutionary Worker's League ' he interpreted as a schism because (RWL) . .

Green choSe.not ·to address national Although the left has long had . and international issues with respect difficultY maintaining coalitions, a reto conserva~ves on campus. ''That's cent article in the Michigan Daily lamnot whatca~pus politics is all about," basted CC's presidential candidate, . comments ·Green.

James Green, and reported an emergPerhapsforthis we should all be ing ~hism among.campus conserva:~ truly thank~l. .For if Uru:versity of tive's : Upon closer analysis, however, . Michigandiinpuspolitics was simply the Daily appears to have erroneously a micrOCosm of the American electoral elevated a personal disagreement besystem in general, there would be very little to look forward to. . tween certain members of College Republicans and CC to a campus-wide phenomena.

Mark R. Tulkki is a cynical senior in As Green points out, "there cereconomics and political science and tainly exists diversity of opinion among an executiv. e 'editor for the Review. camp.us conservatives, but this could • hardly be called a schism. As the left on

..

Liddy Continued From Page lcamptiSes of the United States, the vj- failed to presen tan accura te account of having acknowledged that there were as First Amendment rights - please rusofPolitical Correctness. Resist it. It ho.w Washington politics really work. such secret files, 1 want to point out see the accompanying interview) sugis being foist upon you by your 60sPerhaps the most revealing example something that is a .myth: J. Edgar gesthis criticism holds for governing residue~ professors. It is an acid which , was his depicti~l:'. ofJ, E~gar Hoover Hooverriev~r once sent an agent of the buteaucracies of any size ~ evencol~. · .. will eorruptyour intellect." . . a slici<:.Washill.gto~p.o\\ierbroker, aman .• . FBI to ~e~ :all.dgather in,fonnation on lege .administrations. .

Liddy also reminded members of on the move in theiniormation age. an individual, who had risen to "There is, sweeping across the the audience that any political science . "Everybody talks about J. Edgar prornine~ce,iIl orderto ¢ontroI him." campuses, not justtl:riscampus, but the co~s they may have taken surely Hoover'ssecretfiles ... havjng said that" According t9 Liddy, all the information "came to exist ina very proper way." It .w asobtained in the course of conductinglegitimate.investigations. that often' did not concern the party about whoin Sensitive infonnation was discovered. .

Ifi fodnstance,FBI agents recei ved a tip thatabank, robber was hiding in a . certain hptei;in the courSe of Searching for thec1i~ma,1 an FBI agent might "burst intO.' r60m 510 and there in bed

as

[find)Se~.tor )(/entertairiingi~timately

.... [a 15 yea~old. bimbo).'( Despite ~he finding's ig¢le.vanl,:e to the a hand, lithe rille isthalan'ythingan FBI agent does in the course of an investigation must go inllis report, explained Liddy.

In order tokeep innumerable hordes of . loose-lipp~·. clerical ' staffers from finding out about Senator X's peccadillos, FBldirector Hoover would remove the information before sending the file on its way.

Beca.u5e ,all of the original file's contentwas subject to subpoena, however, the extracted information had to be saved. Then Hoover would send someone from the FBI to assure Senator X that the information had been pulled from the file, while subtley reminding him to be more careful in the future, since it could be disastrous if

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Crime Continued From Page 1 protests at the U-M, there have been calls for additional deputized police officers at Ohio State, where there are already 56 deputized officers, according to public relations officer Sgt. Vernon Baisden of the U-M Department of Public Safety and Security (DPSS).

Preliminary statistics for 1990 indicate that the number of "part I" crimes will see a healthy increase to 2,819. "Part I" crimes, as defined by the FBI, include: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson. While there have been no murders at the UM campus in recent years, every other type of serious offense is well represented.

The DPSS received 31,238 calls in 1989, an average of 85 per day. At the time, these calls were handled by either non-deputized security guards or the Ann Arbor. Police Department (AAPD). Since last fall there has been a gradual transition takingpl<ice as the AAPD has been replaced by the U-M's own deputized officers. The DPSS currently has ten deputized pfficers, of which only five are on un~formed patrol. The mandate of the U-M board of regents however, is for thdorce to expand to a total of 24 deputized officers.

The DPSSis still in a period of transition with respect to i~ becoming a full service police force, according to Sgt. Baisden. Certain services, such as traffic patrol are still left to the AAPD. The jurisdictional boundaries of the two departments have yet to be precisely determined,although the U-Mdepartment is presently responsible for U-M owned property.

The matter of jurisdictional boundaries will have one.important ramification for many' students. The

DPSS does not enforce the laws of Ann Arbor but rather those Of the State of Michigan. Instead ofthe city's $25 fine for possession of Marijuana, campus offenders will be subject to much stricter state laws. The converse effect is that crossing the street can also put one beyond the protection of the DPSS. Crimes such as' the possession of

the addition of the U-M campus police force has an effects on the number of rapes.

What can students do increase their own personal safety? Unfortunately the student population of the U-M is a transient population. Transient popula tions are far more likely to be victimized by crime than other populations,

In contrast to the anti-deputization protests at the U-M, there have been calls for additional deputized police officers at 05U, where there are already 56 deputized officers.

control the situation. According to press reports, groups of between eight and 25 were brawling at the time officers arrived and would not disperse when told to do so.

President Duderstadt has answered the cries of racism by questioning the actions of the officers in an open letter. In an internal investigation, however, Ann Arbor Chief of Police William Hoover found the claims to be unsubstantiated. ''The primary police motivations in response to such an incident is to disperse the participants as quickly and humanly as possible," he wrote in a letter to a complaintant.

"Clearly, the race of the participants was not an issue," he continued.

The U-M is subject to a very high crime rate. The burden is now on President Duderstadt, the newly deputized DPSS officers, as well as the students of the U-M, to work together to reduce crime and make the campus a safer environment for everyone.

marijuana are not the chief concern of the DPSS. Serious Crimes - like the "partl" crimes and the maintenance of a safe campus environment -.:. are.

There is a widespread public perception that the U-M campus is not a safe place. The crime which concerns many students is rape. The feeling that the DPSS can do nothing to prevent rape has been stated numerous times by numerous people, perhaps mosteloquently on a brick wall at the comer of' State and William which reads "Guns Dont Stop Rape."

According to DPSS statisti~ there were 6 reported rapes on campus last year and 17 acts of "criminal sexual conduct" reported. However,FBIstatistics assert that only 10% of all rapes are actually. reported to proper authorities. The U-M has received a dramatic increase in the amount of law enforcement attention it is receiving fn the last several months while the sur~ rounding parts of the City have not. It will remain to be seen whether ornot

according to Victoria Schneider of the U-M Institute for Social Research. The best way a student can counter this threatis not reactively but probatively.

Both Baisden and Schneider recommend not simply utilizing, but actually· joining groups such as SafeWalk and NorthWalk. This will allow a student to discover what is really happening on and around the U-M campus at night and to become acquainted with

on CSP AN and CNN. "Any time Congress is having a great public hearing ... without exception [all such proceedings] are bogus."

Ordinarily, according to Liddy, there are actually two sets of hearings, the first of which is conducted "in total secrecy." The witness takes an oath and submits to interrogation while a stenographer complies a transcript of the questions and answers. "When they would ask a witness a question and the witness' answer would crush the congressman or the senator and make it obvious whata nitwit he was,"

the senator could note it on the tran~ script for future reference. "[H]aving spent millions of your tax dollars to do that which they are supposed to do, guess what they do next? They spend vastly more millions to do it all over again in public. Only this time they watch their script [and avoid the embarrassing questions] ... that way they protect themselves from yourfinding out how stupid they are."

book & supply 1< 317S;StC;ftesd:: 66S 4990;,!

Adam DeVore is a sophomore in philosophy and Spanish and an executive editor for the Review.

EI.~R

Clifton Gault is a senior in history and a contributing editor for the Re-

view.

theU-Mlawenforcementcommunity~

The U-M campus, like colleges and universities all around the country, has seen increase in crime in the last few years. Just last semester an unarmed housing security guard was stabbed at a private party held at the Michigan Union. Another private party held in South Quad last December erupted in violence and required the combined efforts of three local law enforcement agencies to quell. Many of those at~ tending the party were black, and there have been cries of "racism" .at the use of "chemical" mace by authorities to

• • • • •

TEXTBOOKS REFERENCE BOOKS OFFICE SUPPLIES ART SUPPLIES MICHIGAN INSIGNIA CLOTHING & GIFTS and much more!

Liddy Continued From Page 12 his enemies were to come upon such information.

So, when "six months later J. Edgar Hoover goes up in front of the Senate appropriations committee and says, 'I would like 2/000 new Ford interceptor automobiles,' the Senators respond, 'You want 2,000 new cars, sir? Whynot take 4,OOO? Would you like white walls?1II Liddyalsodiscussedthe"showtrial hearings" that began with the televised Watergate probe, returned during the Iran-Contra affair, and confront us daily

Special Thanks: The Review would like to thank the Margaret Waterman Alumni Group of the U-M for striving to provide the best possible lecture series to raise funds for U-M scholarships. Your efforts are appreciated by all.

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Books

Galbraith Should Quit Both of His Jobs , ~ .... '

A Tenured Pro~r John Kenneth Galbraith Houghton Mifflin Company Softcover, $7.95 197pgs.

by Adam Garaglola

John Kenneth Galbraith's third novel, A Tenured Professor, takes a look at the world of Wall Street: stocks, bonds, mergers ancl acquisitions - all of the wheeling and dealing of Big Business. The main character is not, however, a prominent financier like Donald Trump or T. Boone Pickens, but rather a quiet Harvard economics professor who has devised a new theory for forecasting market trends.

Montgomery Marvin, the novel's main character, joined the Harvard faculty in order to pursue the study of market trends in the pricing of refrigerators and other durable goods. In his spare time, Marvin'worked on an economic theory thatdetermines the level ofirrational expeCtations that is present +

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in a particular mar~~t The theory of irrational expectatiQris ~hich Galbraith writes of is an iri>nidoil to the real-life economic theories about the rational expectations whi~are - supposed to govern the level 'of,investment in a particular market;. Using his new theory, Marvin play~the market, accurately predicting rise and fall of various stocks and~ties.

Marvin useshls"market forecasts to rake in a hug~~ount of money, which of course leads to various complications. Whilet~~re is some potential for a dramaticaJ\d engaging story here, Galbraith's dry and remote style of writing rnakes'tl\e novel as engaging as an economics text, and only slightly more entertaining. ' The story opens with the Marvin

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family moving into a large and expensive house on one of the more affluent streets of Cambridge. This intrigues Marvin'sroUeagues, who are unaware of his extra-curricular business activities. Galbraith's portrayal of the Harvard faculty, from the petty to the pedantic, is probably the most entertaining aspect of the book. The cynical Professor McCrimmon, who advises Marvin to aet tenure before trying to change the world, is the voice which carries Galbraith's acerbic wit to the reader. In contrast, the other characters are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts; Marvin is an economics professor, but. little distinguishes him as an individual, even with Galbraith's rat11er lengthy descriptions of his past.

Marvin's wife Marjie, who uses their new-found money to put into practice her ideas about PPW, the Positive Power of Wealth, isa (very) stereotypical east coast liberal. She masterminds the couple's experiments in s0cial engineering, which (not unexpectedly) include setting up endowments for peace research at the mili tary academies' buying up and , disposing of Harvard's investments in South Africa, and forming organizations to oppose political action committees. The reader is given a rather simplistic portrayal of Marjie's motives: her previous husband was a Washington lobbyist, and her divorce imbued her with a bitter resentment toward him and the moneyed political interests he represents. "..

Everitually, as one might expect, the walls rome crashing down on the" Marvins: the Securities Exchange " Commission decides that Professor Marvin's theories give him an unfair advantage, and congressmen, upset at thecouple'~meddlingin theirpoiitical " interests, conduct hearings and pass a few laws toobstructthe Marvins' business activities. Once again, the novel has the potential to become agripping and dramatic rollercoaster saga, but it does not. Instead, events simply happen, unfolding in an artificially linear narrative: The Marvins test their theory, use it to get rich, arouse the ire of the wrong people, and lose. Galbraith never explores the characters' reactions to their changing fortunes, nor their feelings about the causes they support or the opposition which results.

Galbraith, it seemS, is so concerned with explaining the workings of Marvin'swonderful economic theory, and the strategies behind the couple's <r{ ... ,i

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investments and acquisitions that he forgets abou t the novelist's du ty to tell a good story. His much-vaunted satirical portrayal of money I power politics on the one hand, and the more removed world of academia on the other, comes through in a couple of mildly acidic on~liners and a few interesting touches of irony. A back--cover blurb suggeststi~.is a "latter-day Voltaire," but Galbraith could hardly be considered to be in the same league

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as that master of sarcastic satire.

Galbraith, himself a left-leaning Harvard economist, proves in the final analysis to be about as proficient in the field ofliteratureas he is in economics.

Adam Garagiola is a sophomore in creative writing and comparative literature and is the literary editor for the Review.

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Arts

Oliver Stone: War, Lies, and Videotape

by David J. Powell

Oliver Stone might be incredibly hip these days, but he may be running out of story ideas. Stone earns his living off trashy nostalgia, and, unfortunately for him, the recent Gulf War produced none of that. Two of Stone's most successful films to date, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, have centered around the United States' failure in Vietnam. A third film, Wall Street, attempted to show the shallowness and criminality behind American capitalism.

Most recently, Stone has attempted to apotheosize the proverbial drunkard, the Doors' Jim Morrison, to godlike stature. All in all, Stone has earned his reputation as "your basic left-wing muckracker of the national soul." All of Stone's films grossly misrepresent reality.

Born on the Fourth ofJuly is not a film for everyone. It begins with a young Ron Kovic playing imaginary war games in the nearby woods of his suburban New York home .. Half a decade later, Kovic, played by Tom Cruise, enlists in the Marines, where he serves two tours of duty in southeast Asia during the Vietnam war.

In a little less than 2 1/2 hours, Kovic mistakenly slaughters a number of innocent Vietnamese - defenseless women and children, of course - gets shot twice, and crawls around in his own blood in a futile attempt to massacreasmany"gooks" as possible. This is all before firing several rounds, mistakenly, into one of his own men. At different points in the film, Kovic is forced to stare at his own vomit for a long time, participates in fistfights, condemns the United States, denounces all religion, makes several crude references to his impotence, and engages in explicit sex acts with Mexican prostitutes.

I hope I haven't given the wrong impression: Oliver Stone thinks his film contains an uplifting story with a patriotic message. Indeed, Born is billed as "a story of innocence lost and courage found." According to Stone, Kovic's spiralling misfortunes, just like Morrison's, represent some kind of heroic triumph over adversity. But if the movie is any reflection on its director, don't believe him; Stone lies.

Stone repeats this error in his new film, The Doors. According to Detroit News movie critic Susan Stark: "Here

as usual is another Oliver Stone movie that compensates in dynamism what it lacks in balance and perspective."

We might first ask why, in some instances, Stone is retentive in his attention to histbrical detail, while other times he reverses the course of history altogether. According to Leo Cawley, a Vietnam veteran and author of Refighting the War: Why Movies are in Vietnam, "into films go all the love and longing for what America is missing."

This is perhaps true in some cases, but it does not explain, as Cawley alleges, an abundance of right;..wing Vietnam films.

On the contrary, the abundance of left-wing Vietnam films stems from

At the film's close, Kovic-the-dove is peacefully addressing the 1976 Democratic Convention and has found renewed faith in his country now that the war-mongering Republicans are out of office.

Stone's portrayal ofKovic'slifeisa peculiar kind of advocacy. Clearly, he worShips the real life Kovic and all for which he stands for ("There's no God, no country, just me in this wheelchair." / "I'd give all my values just to have my body back again."), but it appears as if he must resort to distorting truth in order to justify his admiration. This is understandable, as Kovic's rejection of God and country do not seem very courageous, or heroic, to most Ameri-

The abundance of left-wing Vietnam films stems from Hollywoods love affair - approaching neurosis - with anything anti-American Hollywood's love affair - approaching neurosis - with anything antiAmerican. This is evident in the recent proliferation and popularity of antiwar films (Born, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket). This, however, contradicts Cawley's statement, that "what Americans seem to crave mostis assurance of their goodness, their essential morality," to which I would add this (post Vietnam) corollary: " .. .and their government's badness and essential immorality." This is what has been referred to as the Vietnam syndrome.

While Born fails in its attempts to champion the American spirit (courage has always been uniquely American to Hollywood), it portrays the government as brutal, dishonest, self-serving, and hypocritical. More specifically, however, the problem is the Republican Party. Throughout the past, the Republican Party has been stereotyped as the party of militant "hawks" and religious fanatics. Unfortunately for Stone, however, it was the "peaceloving" Democrats that initiated Vietnam, and the ''hawkish'' Republicans that brought it to a close.

To further complicate matters, the real Ron Kovic was assaulted and denied speaking privileges at the 1968 Democratic Convention. But of course in movieland anything is possible. In Born on the Fourth ofJuly, contrary to the historical record, war-protestor Kovic is badly beaten outside the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami Beach.

cans. In fact, Kovic, in times of doubt, seems more like a whiny child (wonderfully aided by Tom Cruise's whimpering falsetto) than a hero.

Therefore, in order to elevate Kovic to heroic stature, Stone is required to make the traditional values of God and country look ridiculous in the face of Kovic's adversity (Kovic is paralyzed from the chest down). To his filmmaking credit, Stone does this quite successfully by removing the principal issue, Kovic's heroism, from its traditional moral context and places it entirelywithin the self. Consequently,as Republicans are most easilyidentifiable with the selfless values of God and country, they reCeive the brunt of Stone's secular bombardment.

Stone repeats this scenario in The Doors r presenting Ed Sullivan as "a pure lmffoon" and Andy Warhol "a simpering idiot with a disgustingly wayward tongue." Stark offers this explanation: "Possibly Stone thinks this kind of mean-spirited monkey business somehow further validates Morrison's virulent anti-establishment stance." The same apparently holds true with Kovic in Born.

After discrediting country and paving the way for Kovic'sascendancy to heroic stature, Stone turns his attention to discrediting God, a much more formidable task. Stone relies on slandering the living word as delivered by Kovic's emotionally-wrecked mother. Upon first confronting that he

will never again walk or be able to have children, Kovic verbally abuses his mother, blasphemizes,and grabs at his listless genitals - all in her presence.

Oddly, this powerful scene concludes, almost comically, with Kovic' smother commanding, "Don't say penis in this house!" The obvious purpose of this exchange is to demonstrate the inappropriateness and incompleteness of traditional God-fearing morality as envisioned by Kovic and Stone.

In less than 30 seconds, Stone, by presenting Kovic's mother's concerns grossly ou t of context, removes the las t remaining barrier to Kovic's elevation to heroic stature by demonstrating the apparent pettiness of bourgeois values, thereby legitimizing Kovic's spiritual adandonment and narcissistic obsession with his physical self.

In another, less popular Vietnam film, The Hanoi Hilton, a homeward bound POW asks a friend what has been transpiring on the American continent during the almost decade-long conflict, to which the man replies, "People are kind of into themselves now; self-awareness, sensitivity training, consciousness raising ..."

Both Ron Kovic - the real and the fictitious - and Oliver Stone fit the description above: Born on the Fourth of July boldly asserts the legitimacy of man's physical condition over abstract moral purposes. Born (as with The .Doors) is a self-centered film, and Stone begs that we reward self-centeredness.

He treats higher purposes with biting contempt; they are presented as a facade of two bankrupted philosophies: God and country, and their American carnations, Christianity and republicanism. If anything, however, it is the historical innacuracy and almostcriminal simplicity of Stone's script that allows him to assert that the Ron Kovic story is one of "innocence lost and courage found," when it really is one of "values abandoned and wallowing self-pity."

Thankfully, we were victorious in the Persian Gulf. "By God we kicked the Vietnam syndrome," exclaimed an ecstatic George Bush. Most of us about90%-celebratewithhim;Oliver Stone's wallet does not. Patriotism is back in style and I doubt we will be hearing from Oliver Stone for awhile.

We certainly deserve it.

David J. Powell is a sophomore in history and political science and an assistant editor for the Review.

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The Michigan Review, March 20,1991, p. 16

Music

... Maggie's [)ream: Funk, Folk, and More! mu~icin

by Crusty Muncher

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Maggie's Dream appeared oddly ou.t of place perfonningonthe puny and only slightly raised stage of the She'i,ter,a basement club frequented by Detroit's trendy underground youth.

Hailing from New York City's upperwest .side, the home of rock n' roll behemoths Lenny Kravitz and Mariah carey, Maggie's Dream embraces a style that incorporates elements of folk and funk and projects their material in a style espoused only by the most dynami,cof today's arena":fillmg acts. The band'slive package is too big and too poised for anything other. than the biggest performance halls.' ''Word's getting outal)d we are winning over crowds everywh~re we play," said rhythm guitarist Danny Palomo just before the Shelter set. "We feel that there are at leastfiyeSingles on this album because the pe<.>plethat we meet are Saying that they favor different tra~ks, and they're n~ver the same tWQ.Jf goes well, c6u~(fbeon the r9~d for a long time." . .'. . J:ust what are the l1tra~l<s that malf~ up the record all at;qijt? Fin;t of all; dqn't passby Maggie's Dr.~a,m sim. plyoocause funk is an eSs¢I\pal elementQ£ their music. It seems'that too mariybands coming outn()~~r~influ­ enceqby ~e music of Geprgeqinton aridgiv~na "funky" tag, ~~thlaggie's ~atnis not the same funkJh~,t.clogs radio .and MTV waves~ ~'1sfunky

all

its rawest fonn with a folky tinge toset it apart from the 1:>anal stuff on l~e Billboard charts. Sort of an IndigQGirls meets Rick James or a gritty Kooi& the Gang with Beatlesque vocal harmonies.

Lead vocalist Rob Rosa, arms.tat-

climactic piece that would have made John Lennon proud, Rosaclenched his loins while he sang to the gods. Since we all have clear images of Morrison's' stage style (thanks to Hollywood), it could be said that Rosa, in his tight black leather pants and ayve-inspiring

we

Maggie~s'bream (Danny Palomo, Tony James,Robert Rosa, and Raf) is curr~lt~YJouring the East CoaSt with the ever~eadly Fishbone. . ., .. ,' . . .. :

t(x)e~t~lth eerie religious imagery (on

hisrig~tshoulder is a tattoo of Christ c~g.the cross), belts out his lines

witlj;;~lil .and sincerity arid a very

c()~~nding stage presence. DUring

the:&99ye-heavy and emotional balIads '!lIuman" and "One in Six/ a

manner; is a tad Mqrrison-like, bu t far froma rip-Off. His deiivery is as beautiful as a Hendrix ballad but his voice lends itself to Kravitz comparisons. .HOur music is feeling music. It's very soulful, groove-oriented, emotional, and sincere," describes a spir-

ited Palomo, .who cites the Beatles, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and the Rolling Stones as influences, 'We are definitely funky, there' snodoubt about that. Yet every song is different. Whatever is the essence of the song, we explore it to the fullest."

"Love & Tears," the album's first single, features some cool bass work from bassman Lonnie Hillyer, as well as a James Brown:"'goes-acoustic guitar riff from lead guitarist Raf. "Father Mother" .incorporates beautiful psychedelic vocal harmonies into a song about a man's unsatisfying relationship with his father.

As for videos, Maggie' s Dream will release the second video and single this week with "It's A Sin," which has been the crowd fa vori te on the tour. "If . Sly Stone was to make a video for Wanna Tal<e You Higher' today it would proba.blybe alot like our new video,"explains Palomo, "The hew single isan intense, funky, party tune."

With little o~no airplay and support from Mt\l,the band has already managed to sell 60,000 records. With three or four more singles still in the bag-o-tricks,Maggie's Dream is an arena filling ,ictwal tingto go off like a time bomb. ' Crusty Mqncher is a staff writer for the Review 'despite little or no air-

play.

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'.

B.E.MC 'Combats Top-40 Stigma

by Bud Muncher 'r :

RE.M. is one of the few bands in music today that has found a popular following while maintaining its college/alternative appeal. What makes them even more unique is their urge to experiment and take risks. No RE.M. album has the same sound as the last, and one can see a progression jn their art.

Their latest collection,OJl.t ofTime, is a definite turn away from the sound

of their last two albums, 1987's Document and 1989's Green. It is darker, more introspective album, anticipated more by Green's 'World Leader Pretend" than by "Stand," which vocalist Michael Stipe called "the stupidest song of the decade." Out ofTime on the whole does not seem commercially viable.

RE.M. is not just indifferent to the confines of top-40 music - the group agressively combats them. Their mission is made clear in the opening,

a

"RadioSong," an effort made with rapper ..KRS-One of Boogie Down Productons, who attacks the endless repitition of top-40 music: "DJ sucks."

KR5-One ends the song with the same energy he' uses to rap against other percieved social wrongs, ''Now our chilq,ren grow up prisoners/ all their life-..,.radio listeners!" The unlikely duet be.tween the ragged-VOiced Stipe and urbaJ:\ prophet KRS-One is justjammin'.

The spitg should shoot up the charts if it ,.i$ ,released as a single, despite its anti-trlainstream message. .

Qut ofTime then settles into the first single, "Losing My Religion," which musically sets the pace for the rest of the album. What is largely absent from this song and the collection as a whole is the "wall of guitars" sound from earlier albums. The music is richer and softer and includes violins, horns, and organs. This is especially true on "Radio Song," "Low," and ''Endgame,''

which is mostly instrumental.

"Low" is an eerie piece that is musically and poetically unsettling.

The organ is the undercurrent which draws the listener in. It seems to shimmer in the background of the song. Bill Berry does not pliiY drums, but soft bongos. Peter Buck plays a bitter, rough .guitar. ''Endgame'' is a somber, sweet, classicaJ piece which debuts strings and braSswinds. It is fitting for a sunny Sunday in May. Out of Time enjoys the greatest lyrical clarity of any RE.M. album to date while still providing Michael Stipe's usual angst. ''That's me in the comer / that's me in the spotlight/losing my religion," he sings introspectively. "Country Feedback" seems to be inspired by Neil Young. ''You wear me out, you wear me ou t," Stipe sings to Buck's moaning, shaking guitar.

The album is also uplifting, however: "throw your love around," Stipe

commands in "Shiny Happy People,"" which includes backup vocals from the B-52s' Kate Pierson. Her voice, freed from the kitsch of songs like "Love Shack," is a pretty complimentto Stipe's singing. She also joins Stipe on "Me in Honey."

Another lyrical and musical pause from Stipe's introversion is "Belong," a poem set to music. ''Those barricades can only hold for so long," he reflects, an obvious reference to 'the barricade of 'World Leader Pretend." Could Michael be coming out of his shell? . RE.M~'s Ou't of Time should be commercially successful despite its anti-commercial attitude. For that, millions of untuned teenage ears will be grateful that new RE.M. singles will be their "Radio Songs."

Bud Muncher is a donut salesman for the Review.