gOM

Editorials are posted and archived
on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

First, Repair The White House

overall pattern of vastly encouraging
resource depletion through mining, logging
and other activities and of repealing protec-
tive policies on air and water. His discard-
ews are generally pretty happy to embrace the
ing of the Kyoto Treaty to limit greenhouse
responsibility for tikkun olam, for repair of the
gas emissions signaled the world that
world. 'What a gift it is to be one who not only
America had surrendered a vital goal as
knows what is wrong with the world, but also how to
surely as his overturning a campaign prom-
repair it. And what an enormous duty it is to show the
ise to limit power plants' carbon dioxide
nations how they should behave. We might as well be
emissions signaled a surrender of federal
presidential candidates.
leadership in this country.
And that is one of the saddest facts about this cam-
His public health record is equally dismal
paign between George W. Bush and John E Kerry.
—
ranging from the rising millions of
Neither man seems to be giving much attention to
uninsured
Americans to suppressing drug
repairing the physical world. And while Bush has laid
trial records that show manufac-
out a plan for fixing the moral and geopoliti-
turing failure to the Medicare
cal messes around the globe, his prescriptions
EDIT ORIAL drug benefit that helps corpora-
haven't turned out well in practice.
tions more than it does the indi-
The physical parts are the easiest to track.
vidual
elderly.
His policies on reproductive
All development puts environments and public health
choice
may
please
pro-life advocates but
at risk. Growth requires using resources, many of them
they aren't in sync with the majority view
irreplaceable, and generating wastes that further
of Jews.
degrade the natural world. Good public policy seeks a
Kerry recognizes the need to get
sustainable balance.
American government back on a more ethi-
Kerry's policies and the Democratic platform
cal track in both its domestic and interna-
endorse strong governmental action to preserve the
tional policies. It was heartening that he
environment, and he would limit imports from coun-
told the Democratic convention that his
tries that aren't also moving toward protecting natural
first priority would be restoring the trust in
resources. But he has not made environmental con-
government the Bush administration's
cerns a central part of his campaign and in the Oval
secrecy and duplicity have badly under-
Office would face demands for job creation that would
mined. But promises are easier to make than to keep.
press him to set aside his current goals.
Bush, on the other hand, needs first to show that he
Bush's record on the environment is a disheartening
understands the need to change some of his courses if
study in contrast. His laudable efforts to curb diesel
he hopes to repair America's image in the world. He
emissions and to speed the clean up of "brownfields,"
could start by showing that we do value the environ-
polluted urban industrial sites, are the exceptions to an

Second in a series on the crucial issues that American Jews
should consider in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

Jr

A Birthday Gift For (313)

hen Judy Robinson opened her kinder-
garten classroom in Detroit's Davison
Elementary this semester, preparations took
a bit longer than usual.
That's because it took several trips to her car to carry
in all the boxes of construction paper, crayons, pencils,
paste, notebooks and other school supplies she brought
with her.
They were gifts, passed on from a 10-year-old in
West Bloomfield. Instead of birthday presents, Kenny
Selander asked his friends to bring school supplies to
his August pool party.
"Kenny and his mother talked about the importance
of giving back," says his father, James Selander. "He
knew he'd be getting all the presents he could want
from his family. So why not do something nice for
other people?"
The Selanders asked around and learned that Mrs.
Robinson had a helping hands arrangement for
Davison with Lone Pine Elementary, the Bloomfield

George Cantor's e-mail address is

gcantor@thejewisimews.com

Dry Bones

.2
YOM
ruroN
W
KIPPUR E

FAST AND
ASK TO BE

1

FoRGIWN.

went and public health — the quality of our life — at
least equally with our corporate well being.
America should be setting the standard for the
world. It isn't, and the presidential campaign so far
gives little hope that it will at any time in the near
future. 1-1

pupil expenditure far higher than the state
Hills school her own children had attended.
average, to keep its students adequately sup-
"I had never met the Selanders before and
plied with the basic materials of learning.
suddenly I get a call to pick up all these sup-
Davison is better than most. On the south
plies," she says. "They kept bringing cartons in
service
drive of the Davison Freeway, at Joseph
and I couldn't believe it.
Campau, it was built in the 1920s as a "fresh-
"It's not that we don't get supplies in Detroit.
air" school. There is lots of interior open space
But when we're out, we're out, and I like to do
and big windows opening to the outside.
a lot of projects with construction paper in my
It is also highly diverse, with many fami-
classes. We're just not in a position to send a
GEORGE
lies
in the neighborhood from Bangladesh
note home with the kids and say that they need
CANTOR
and
India, as well as African-Americans. But
to buy extra supplies.
Reality
even with families that are highly motivated
"I end up going out and buying whatever else
Check
to have their children succeed, there are vast
is needed out of my own pocket."
cultural and economic breaches to cross.
You can regard this as an uplifting story; an
The inability of the Detroit school system to allo-
example of affluent area code 248 relieving a little of
cate whatever resources it has where they will do the
the burden from 313. It is surely that. Not many 10-
most good is an old, familiar story.
year-olds have the social conscience of Kenny Selander.
The reading scores inch upwards; the dropout rate
Not many 40-year-olds, for that matter.
A few institutions in Oakland County maintain reg- • stabilizes. But no matter what administrative model
is in effect, the system still seems sluggish and over-
ular contact with Detroit schools. Temple Israel, for
come by inertia when it comes to placing essential
example, has an ongoing program to help Bagley
priorities on its children.
Elementary, which many in its congregation attended.
A school system can rely only so far on the kind-
It is much less usual for individuals to make this sort of
ness of strangers. There aren't too many Kenny
gesture.
Selanders around. ❑
But there is a touch of sadness here, too. It under-
lines the inability of the Detroit schools, with a per-

SN

9/24
2004

45

