If Martin Were Alive

If Martin were alive today, maybe the bicker-
ing that seems to be going on even in the cele-
bration of his memory would not be.
Martin Luther King Jr. was loved and re-
spected by people of diverse races, religions and
ethnic backgrounds for many reasons. He lis-
tened to dissenting views, often angry points.
What made him different was he didn't just lis-
ten, he heard. People felt that they could differ,
but they could do so in an arena of mutual re-
spect.
Also, Martin Luther King Jr. just didn't talk
the talk; he walked the walk as well. He trav-
eled many miles, bringing people together. He
faced the hate head on, and in most cases he
turned it into hope.
Now we live in a time when our children can
only read about Martin Luther King. Many
aren't exposed to a contemporary living exam-
ple like Dr. King. He was a great Afro-Ameri-
can, but his messages of hard-working,

non-violent action were for black, Jew, Chris-
tian, white, everyone.
Now it seems that there's just too much neg-
ative, too much dissension. We can readily quote
terms such as "gutter religion" and "Hymi-
etown" that we've read and heard. We know
about the black and Jewish tension happening
in New York, specifically Crown Heights.
Yet, there are still success stories where Jew
and black live together and thrive, seeking what
we all want for our children and ourselves —
love, good health, peace, harmony and pros-
PeritY.
With the void still left by Dr. King's assas-
sination, it's the small things we need to hang
onto. They're more important than militancy
because hate never cemented anything long-
lasting. Shared respect is the glue. 'That's part
of what Martin taught us. Now, more than ever,
we need to remember that lesson.

War Lite

The U.S. and Saddam Hussein are at war again,
sort of we're knocking out his missiles but Sad-
dam doesn't care. He's winning the political and
psychological battle in the Arab world, and
that's what matters to him.
The Western mentality has a hard time fig-
uring out Saddam. He provokes the U.S. and
its coalition of allies until they pulverize his
forces; then he declares victory. That's because
he cares not a whit about the suffering of his
people. To Saddam, standing up to the world's
superpower, enduring military attacks and sur-
viving, is a victory of its own.
George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Yitzhak
Shamir and other leaders who opposed Iraq
during the Gulf War are out of power while he
remains firmly entrenched. What's more, Sad-
dam is gaining sympathy among his fellow
Arabs who see him as a victim of a Western dou-
ble standard. Why is it, they grumble, that the
U.S. allows the murder of Muslims in Bosnia
to go on and refuses sanctions against Israel for
deporting hundreds of Hamas supporters but

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intervenes with military might in Iraq?
And the U.S. has as much as admitted that
it does not have the stomach for going in and
capturing or eliminating Saddam himself.
American troops had a difficult enough time
finding General Noriega in cozy Panama. The
chances of tracking down Saddam, either in his
bomb-proof bunker or throughout his vast land,
seems even more daunting.
In addition, the U.S. is fearful that a Sad-
dam-less Iraq would fall prey to fundamental-
ist Muslims, as in Iran, or result in total chaos
of small warring factions.
Having inherited this mess, the new Clinton
administration should consider supporting an
Iraqi government in exile, made up of more de-
mocratic-minded potential leaders, or striking
Iraq with sufficient firepower as to create a
groundswell of dissatisfaction with Saddam
among his countrymen. Or both.
The current policy, though, of War Lite may
be emotionally satisfying but it is politically
short-sighted.

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Letters

ACLU Responds To
Writer's Criticism

I enjoyed reading the letter
regarding the American Civ-
il Liberties Union by Dr.
Joseph J. Weiss in the Jan.
15 issue.
Since the ACLU is called
upon to make so many close
calls on so many different
matters of social policy, there
is certainly plenty of room for
second-guessing and criti-
cism. But Dr. Weiss's com-
ments appear to be about
some fictitious organization,
not the ACLU.
His essential criticism boils
down to: (1) The ACLU's
"case selection" and "roster of
lawyers" are not made pub-
lic, and (2) The ACLU inter-
vened in the Skokie case
because ACLU attorneys
"sought present personal at-
tention and later private
gain."
Ironically, we recently pro-
duced a booklet describing
the highlights of our cases (in
commemoration of the 30th
anniversary of the American
Civil Liberties in Michigan).
Far from not making it pub-
lic, at least 10,000 copies
were distributed throughout
Michigan. I'm sorry one did
not come to the attention of
Dr. Weiss.
We do not maintain a "ros-
ter of lawyers," but the iden-
tity of attorneys who
volunteer to handle ACLU
cases is certainly a matter of
public record: their names
usually appear in the Detroit
Free Press, and certainly
ACLU's own newsletter. Any-
one who wants to know the
identity of an ACLU lawyer
is welcome to give me a ring.
With regard to the charge
that the ACLU intervened in
the Skokie case for the per-
sonal gain of the attorneys:
for those of us who lived
through the heartbreak of
this difficult case, this seems
like a very strange charge.
Further, the attorney who
handled the Skokie case, for-
mer Illinois ACLU Legal Di-
rector David Goldberger, is
now a member of the faculty
of the School of Law of Ohio
State University. This hard-
ly seems like he parlayed the

Skokie case to great fame and
fortune!
The ACLU has a difficult
job in American society, pro-
tecting individual rights that
are continuously under as-
sault. We, like everyone else,
should be subjected to fair
criticism. Unfortunately, Dr.
Weiss' comments fall short of
that standard.

Howard Simon
Executive Director,
ACLU of Michigan

Hiding From
AIDS Problem

I am responding to the Jan.
15 letters to the editor re-
garding the Alef, Bet and
AIDS program.
Orthodox children must
learn about AIDS and con-
doms even if those words in-
sult the sensibilities of their
rabbis. Right now, in our own
Jewish neighborhoods, there
are Orthodox teens using
drugs, Orthodox women and
children being physically and
sexually abused, Orthodox
men and women having ex-
tra-marital affairs. There is
Orthodox alcoholism and Or-
thodox crime.
When are the leaders of the
Orthodox community going to
acknowledge that depriving
their children of information
about today's problems will
not make those temptations
go away? It will only leave
their children unprepared to
cope with life in a troubled
world.

Lois Granader
Bloomfield Hills

Council Of Rabbis
And AIDS Debate

In his letter published Jan.
15, Rabbi Chaskel Grubner,
on behalf of the Council of Or-
thodox Rabbis, condemns the
organizations involved in the
Torah Aura curriculum. This
goes well beyond merely crit-
icizing the curriculum or
maintaining that those in-
volved in promoting it are
wrong-headed.
It is a direct attack upon
the integrity and motives of

AIDS DEBATE page 10

