DOER

PROFILE

ROZG RA\ T/

City: West Bloomfield
Kudos: Tracking The Dogs

As a volunteer, Roz Granitz spent the last six months
coordinating the 300 dogs entered in this weekend's
agility trials at the Detroit Kennel Club's All-Breed Dog
Shows at Cobo Center in Detroit. Donating her time as
trial secretary for Sportsmen's Dog Training Club of
Detroit's American Kennel Club (AKC), her motto is,
"My dogs aren't my whole life — they are what makes it
whole."

With three
levels of dogs
running on
two types of
obstacle
courses, how
do you keep
track of the
dogs and their
scores?
I print arm-
bands and
each dog is
assigned a
number. I cre-
ate sheets that
Roz Granitz with Brava, one o
reflect the
her Australian shepherds.
dogs' score
and sheets that display the running order. I have a
team who help me with computer scoring. At the
end of the trial, I print catalogs with scores and send
them to the AKC.

In addition to continuing your work with
Sportsmen's and entering your two Australian shep-
herds in the trials, how else are you involved in the
world of show dogs?
I teach agility and obedience at Club Pet Too in
Commerce Township. In addition, I will be secretary
for German Wirehaired Pointer Club's National
Specialty this fall. I also show my dogs a lot.

How do you keep it all straight?
I have learned to be very
and have a
wonderful husband, Allan, and friends who help me
get the monumental job done and done correctly.

— Shelli Liebman Dorfman, staff writer

Shakespeare And Journalism 101

I

teach a course in introducto-
ry journalism at a local uni-
versity.
My class is made up of
fairly bright young people, but
almost every assignment they turn
in is self-referential. They seem to
have an interest in the wider world
only as it directly relates to them-
GEORGE selves.
CANTOR
Far worse than that is an almost
Reality Check complete ignorance of history and
literature, which are the two main
supports of good journalism. Details of the
Vietnam War are as distant and
hazy to them as the War of
Jenkins' Ear. And about as impor-
tant.
Once, in a fit of mischief, I
attached four famous
Shakespearian quotes to the
weekly quiz on current events
and asked them to identify the
plays from which they came. Out
of the 18 students in class, I got
one right answer. They seemed
nonplussed that I would even ask
such questions.
After all, he's just another dead
white male European. What does
he possibly have to offer our
brave diverse, high-tech, new
world?
I discussed my favorite passage
from Julius Caesar in which
Cassius tries to enlist a new member in his con-
spiracy and says:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves that we are underlings.
There, in two lines placed in the mouth of a
man from ancient Rome, is the spirit of the
Renaissance. Centuries of superstition and blind
submission to fate are swept away. We are told
that, for better of worse, we have been given free
choice and are responsible for our own lives and
the decisions we make.

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejevvishnews.corn

It is the most liberating and frightening of state-
ments, the foundation of human freedom. It is also
among the pillars of Judaism.
The echoes of that idea are very much with us.
The Pew Foundation recently conducted a survey
of American and European attitudes towards the
statement: "Success in life is pretty much deter-
mined by forces outside our control."
Overwhelmingly, the Europeans agreed. By 66
percent in Italy and 68 percent in Germany. In
America, however, only 32 percent felt they had no
control over their lives. When the follow-up was
asked — is individual freedom more important
than having the state take care
of anyone in need? — the
results were exactly reversed.
This has become the great
watershed between Americans
and the rest of the Western
world. It is the main reason
we have become the beacon
for immigrants with talent
and ambition. They want to
come to a place that allows
them to fall or rise on their
own talents; where they can
no longer blame their stars
when they fail.
Or take the wonderful lines
from Twelfth Night:
Dost think because you are
virtuous
There will be no more cakes
and ale?
It's the perfect rebuke to the
nutrition police who want to go after fast-food
restaurants because some people are obese. They
argue that a steady diet of fast food is harmful and
that everyone bears the social costs for the results.
So it must be stopped!
But a steady diet of any food isn't good for you,
and eating a Big Mac is a far less dangerous activity
than driving a car or taking a bath. Where do we
draw the line for acceptable risk? Isn't that a choice
for individuals to make, without the coercive
power of the state to mandate nutritional virtue?
Sometimes, dead white male poets are just as
timely as the headlines in today's newspaper. Or, at
least, invaluable in explaining them.

Shabbat Candlelighting

"As I cover my eyes and pray, the peace of Shabbos enters and surrounds me."

— Pam Goldberg-Danzig, Farmington Hills, teacher

REPORT A DOER...

Know a Doer someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life outside of their
job? Share suggestions with Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mail:
kcohenOthejewishnews.com

Candlelighting
Friday, March 19, 6:26 p.m.

Candlelighting
Friday, March. 26, 6:34 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, March 20, 7:28 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, March 27, 7:36 p.m.

To submit a candlelighting message, call Miriam Anzalak of the Lubavitch Women's Organization at (248) 548-6771 or e-mail: inamzalakuno.com

3/19
2004

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