Bockhorn's Assumptions "Dangerous to America's Identity"

To the editor:

Though they don't know the exact date Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Southern California youths on Jay Leno's show, in all fairness, are not necessarily morons (in response to Lee Bockhorn's attacks in "Land of the Ignorant, Home of the Morons" Nov. 18).

Furthermore, we are not "a nation at risk of forgetting who we are" as you assume. In fact, it's assumptions like that which are the most dangerous to America's identity. We are the teenager of the World. The home of rock and roll. The land of the free my friend, regardless of how ignorant we may or may not be of what YOU deem to be the most important facts of our history.

Some Americans may find you ignorant for not knowing the lyrics of Bob Dylan's revolutionary songs which actually shaped what is American culture. Sure, Gutenberg is special to YOU, a journalist, but certainly the invention of the electric guitar is far more important to a starving musician.

Some Americans may call you ignorant for caring so much about who succeeds Margaret Thatcher and yet not worrying about the fact that high school students across our nation are having their rights to free speech and press ripped from their very larynxes. Sure, Tony Blair is important to YOU, someone who arguably follows politics, but the cases supported by the Student Press Law Center in D.C. are far more interesting to people who are actually involved.

Let us not assume our views are necessarily the only correct ones.

Jesse Miller
LSA

Review Staff Is "Underinformed, Uneducated"

I had not, until last night, ever read through a Michigan Review before. I must say, it is, perhaps, one of the more enjoyable things I've done in a long time. I had not, prior to this, realized there were people at this university that were so underinformed and uneducated. To start with, if you are going to ridicule people in an academic sphere, it would be advisable to make sure you know what you're talking about. Umm... the Free Mumia Coalition has already decided what to do with themselves - ARA was formed from this group. President Bollinger has planned on moving the administration building to Angell since the day he was hired, basically. The "fit" hypothesis is not a loose term, it's the term academics who study affirmative action use. Yet, I commend your honest appraisal of The Shape of the River. I just wonder, in your honesty of why you oppose affirmative action, why you call it principles and not a lack of principles? Do you boys and one or two, it looks like, misled girls have any principles? And, Julie, dear, I find it very ironic that you are writing a polemic about manners in a paper like this.

Lastly, I think your views might have more effect and deserve some sort of respect if you were a little more mature in your presentation. Wishing "anti"-smokers dead is not only a truly horrible sentiment, it reminds me of something an eleven year old might say. Mr. Oslick's "so there" rhetoric to the SAPAC complaints really won my vote in MSA elections (btw - "propagandish" is not a word, as yet).

I could go on, but I'm sure your utter enjoyment at getting letters like these will die away if I continue. And, I know you do enjoy them, and that's fine, because I enjoyed writing it and cannot wait to read your paper again.

Good to know ignorant white men are still trying to rule the world.

Laura Muir

SAPAC Coverage "Misguided"

I am writing in response to Jacob Oslick's misguided article about SAPAC and its use of statistics on sexual assault. ALL statistics are subject to biases, media distortions, etc. However, anyone that believes that the 5 assaults reported to DPS were the "only" ones committed is naive. Society pressures sexual assault survivors to remain silent, regardless of the degree of the attack. Oslick's article implies that rape is the only "real" sexual assault, whereas the rest are "only" fondling. Unwanted sexual contact of any degree is disgusting. Does Oslick really believe that SAPAC "propaganda" is what creates an "unjustifiable climate of fear and apprehension"? I have little recollection of the SAPAC presentation at my own orientation. However, I know this much: the climate of fear is quite justifiable. I cannot walk alone after dark. I cannot roam the Arb on my own. I have to go to parties in groups of girls that will watch each other's backs. I have been told a personal account of incest my best friend experienced. I remember my freshman year when I was cornered at 8pm on a Wednesday against the Student Publications Building on Maynard and told by a drunken stranger that I was a bitch and a slut who'd better watch out or else. I have to read articles by Oslick that attempt to discredit my experiences. I wonder why Oslick is so quick to assume that sexual assault statistics are so invalid.

Emily Achenbaum
LSA Sophomore

Review Is "Terrified of Women"

Why don't you just come right out and say that you are terrified of women who threaten your cozy world of white male supremacy? Do you actually think that what you encountered on Nov. 3rd at your staff meeting was a mob of angry feminists? We stopped by your meeting, read you a letter in response to "SAPAC: Sex, Lies, and Statistics," and left. You obviously felt threatened enough, however, to conjure up a delusional image of an angry mob in your head and then complain about it in your publication (11/18).

What I find most disturbing about your publication is the seeming necessity to trivialize such issues as violence against women. I understand that statistics can be debated and interpreted differently. However, Jacob Oslick implied that the prevalence of violence against women is exaggerated, when, in fact, it is often unreported because the survivor feels she has no where to turn. Thanks to organizations like SAPAC, however, women have places to go for support and advice. Why does Oslick feel he must rip apart an organization that simply aids women and spreads awareness?

The answer, in my eyes, is that Oslick and others like him at the Michigan Review feel immensely threatened. Women are working, demanding equal rights, and my God, they are voting! There just isn't as much room for men who still believe in the goodness of a male patriarchal society.

Hint: it's 1998, not 1898. Get used to losing your power and male privilege. If you don't, another mob of 20 or so angry feminists might interrupt your weekly staff meeting again.

Eleanore Meitz-Schroeder

Review "Eloquent, Amusing"

I really like your paper. I think you - fairly successfully - manage to point out the foibles of BAMN and SAPAC in a manner which is eloquent, amusing, within the bounds of civilized discussion, and rarely commits the errors upon which they thrive.

I highly doubt anything was meant by "The Final Solution," the final subheading of Benjamin Rousch's "Diversity and Liberal Arts at U-M" (which was a good article), but you should be more careful about careless things like that. I'm not offended, but it really doesn't look good for you.

Sara Feldman

Ms. Feldman,

Thank you for bringing this oversight to our attention. Although the association of a certain pairing of words with a historical monstrosity should not automatically bar their use together in every circumstance, if one has a suitable alternative in mind it should be chosen.

Ed.

This article was published in the 9 December 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 17, Number 5).
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