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From: gt@umich.UUCP (Gus Teschke)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Re: Trash Student Government?
Message-ID: <398@umich.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 22:56:45 EST
Article-I.D.: umich.398
Posted: Sat Jan 18 22:56:45 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 05:51:30 EST
References: <389@umich.UUCP> <373@ihnp1.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: University of Michigan, EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 51

In <373@ihnp1.UUCP> frear@ihnp1.UUCP (Lori Frear) writes:
...
>In honor of George Bush's appearance, the student government at U of MI
>decided to shout through Mr. Bush's entire speech, so that no one could 
>hear him.  I don't know if they did, I would have been too embarrassed
>by such childish behaviour that I did not attend.  It's sad to say that
>many student governments are an embarrassment not only to the faculty/
>staff/regents/alums but also to their fellow students.

Many people did shout through Bush's speech, and it was embarrassing.
But not as embarrassing and sleazy as George Bush, who is not exactly known
these days for his support of humanist causes, showing up to commemorate
the birth of the Peace Corps.  When's the next election?

And don't blame the student governments (didn't you know there is more
than one?) of UofM for it, for they never "decided to shout" as you
claim.  If you are referring to the primary student government, the
Michigan Student Assembly, and its resolution against Bush's appearance
(they thought it was inappropriate, 11 to 10), its members never decided 
to shout either.  Where did you get your information?

In truth the number of people unhappy with Bush's appearance was far
beyond the membership of MSA.  See the Detroit Free Press article of
October 8, page 3, "5,000 BOO VICE PRESIDENT AT UofM".  The Free Press
printed a retraction the next day saying "not everyone was booing." The
New York Times said "thousands."

But in spite of significant protest, a lot of people did hear him.  He
brought the hugest PA system I've ever seen on campus outside of a
concert or commencement.  On TV, you could barely hear the chants of
"USA CIA out of Nicaragua".  And George can always call a press
conference if he thinks he needs to repeat his views -- again.  I think
that if opposing viewpoints received some media access, the
demonstration would not have happened.

I don't know about you, but I'm disgusted by the way our government supports a
government in El Salvador that fights against rebels by indiscriminately
bombing rural areas.  You know, El Salvador, where the "government" has
failed to convict any of the death squad criminals responsible for
about 40,000 deaths in the last six years.   The Reagan/Bush government also
happens to be funding terrorists on the borders of Nicaragua to
destabilize a government that was elected in an election at least as fair
as our own.  Not to mention the incredibly wimpy and hypocritical stand
taken on South Africa, etc. etc.  So much for the principles of the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  

Isn't it more of an embarrassment for a student government to tacitly 
approve of such policies?

							Gus Teschke
							..!ihnp4!umich!gt