First Round
Eye For An Eye
I
t didn't take long for the vacation
to wear off. After seven days on a
ship in the Caribbean, I forgot all
about the news.
Sure, CNN was available on cable in
the cabins, but it was the international
version, so no mention was made of the
important American stories like Brooke
Shield's beef with Tom Cruise, or that
missing girl in Aruba.
With no computer or Internet avail-
able at a reasonable price, I had no
desire to check my e-mail, either.
I was unplugged.
But after last week's events, signing up
for a 12-month stint as a busboy on a
cruise ship doesn't sound like a bad idea.
In all seriousness, the United States
special ops soldiers killed in Afghanistan
on June.28, followed by the London
bombings on July 7, can't help but put a
Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum @thejewishnews. corn
pall over any sun-drenched summer day.
The body count over the war on ter-
rorism keeps piling up, and sometimes it
even preempts cable "news" about Paris
Hilton.
Investigators are learning more about
the London bombings that left, at last
count, 49 dead, 31 missing and 700
injured.
The four bombs went off within 50
seconds of each other and weren't
packed with more that a few pounds of
explosives. (And thanks to ABC News
for reporting the rumor that Israel knew
about the bombings but didn't warn
anyone. Sounds like the same conspiracy
theorists who also thought that the New
York Jews knew about 9-11 and stayed
home that day.)
Britain is on.it's highest alert ever,
even higher than after 9-11, because the
bombers haven't been caught yet, and
they might strike again.
Although most Brits said the attacks
wouldn't change the way they live,
police evacuated 20,000 of them from a
large area of central Birmingham,
England, because of a "credible threat."
Our Department of Homeland
Security raised the threat level to orange
for mass transit areas, but I don't know
how we can protect ourselves from a
person who would sneak a four-pound
bomb in a backpack and push the but-
ton on his or her way to Allah.
Pundits and experts on Sunday morn-
ing said Al Qaeda has morphed into a
de-centralized organization of cells that
act on their own when they are ready.
They say that sleeper cells are already
here in America and that mass transit
security is woefully inadequate.
While most news organizations covered
Hurricane Dennis, a 60 Minutes rerun on
Sunday night showed how millions of
dollars of Homeland Security money
have been used by local law enforcement
agencies around the country.
The money was evenly distributed,
thus allowing one small community in
Tennessee to buy tractor sheds. Another
small California community purchased a
weapons-of-mass-destruction container
— the only one of
its kind in America.
The segment showed
that, in the rush to
secure America after
9-11, we haven't
really secured any-
thing.
All last week, the
HARRY
local news covered
KIRS BAUM
the baseball All-Star
Columnist
Game preparations
in Detroit. After the
London bombings, a segment made to
comfort people about security precau-
tions in Detroit included Coast Guard
ships on the Detroit River with mount-
ed .50-caliber machine guns, but it
doesn't make me feel any safer.
Whatever your political bent, every-
one can agree that there's no quick
answer on terrorism. Calling Al Qaeda
and Taliban members terrorists, or
insurgents, or freedom fighters doesn't
change the fact that they wanted us just
as dead on Sept. 10, 2001, and it had
nothing to do with Iraq or President
Bush.
It's just us.
state choose a time to administer the
test when important segments of the
school population (both students and
teachers) are celebrating their holiest of
days and may be absent?
The state of Michigan needs to own
up to its mistake, reschedule the test
and make certain that controls are in
place so that this kind of egregious mis-
take never happens again. I urge com-
munity members to call the state of
Michigan and insist that the MEAP
testing for next year be changed.
Ann Arbor.
Because of Mr. Gad-Harf's years of
coalition building, this community
worked together and this community
became a model of co-existence for
other communities. Throughout his
17-year tenure in Detroit, Mr. Gad-
Harf has served the community focus
and thoughtfulness. Community rela-
tions is key to a minority population
and to the well-being of all Americans.
I applaud Mr. Gad-Harf's decision to
speak out on the difficult issues and
uphold basic freedoms and civil liber-
ties.
Thank you, David, for your enor-
mous strength and dedication. Thank
you never losing sight of the ultimate
goal of peace and justice.
❑
Letters
Change MEAP Dates
The Michigan State Board of
Education has slapped the Jewish com-
munity in the face by scheduling ele-
mentary and middle school Michigan
Education Assessment Program testing
for the 2005-2006 school year during
the two weeks that begin on Rosh
Hashanah.
The board has no excuse for failing
to have the foresight to check a reli-
gious calendar for major religious holi-
days when making the decision for the
test dates. And when they were
informed by community members that
these dates would place a hardship on
both Jewish students and Jewish teach-
ers alike, they turned a deaf ear when
they should have been willing to make
a change in the testing schedule. Two
weeks before or after simply could not
have made that much difference.
More distressing is that Jewish com-
munity organizations, which should be
standing up for us, have chosen to
either ignore the situation or not make
waves. If the MEAPs had been sched-
uled on Ramadan or Christmas, one
can only imagine the outcry that would
have erupted from the communities
affected. Most importantly, what about
our kids? They deserve better.
It is well known in the educational
community that kids do best on the
MEAP test when they take it with their
7 / 14
2005
6
class and have their teacher present.
No child should have to be pulled out
of another subject to make up the test,
or should any class not have their
teacher present simply because our
state was too lazy or too incompetent
to check a calendar.
We need to stand up as a communi-
ty, with our community leaders' sup-
port, and insist that our state Board of
Education do the right thing.
Susan Burstein Kahn
Farmington Hills
-
Dayle Prinstein
Farmington Hills
Bad State Timing
I recently learned that the 2005-2006
MEAPs are scheduled for same time as
the High Holidays. I am amazed that
the state of Michigan would show such
little regard for Jewish students, teach-
ers and other education personnel.
Although I am not a teacher, I am a
longtime school social worker in the
Royal Oak School District. I do know
from firsthand experience that this will
place a hardship on many local school
districts.
While many will agree that the
MEAPs are not necessarily the best
indicator of school success, they still
remain the single most important tool
for determining school district success.
That being the case, why would the
A Coalition Builder
Having just returned from an extended
July 4th holiday, I hope you will permit
me to respond to the misdirected letter,
"A Troubling Appearance" (June 30,
page 7). I had the pleasure of serving as
president of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit from
2001 to 2003, two of the most con-
tentious and difficult years for Detroit
Jews.
I worked with Executive Director
David Gad-Harf as he led us through
the horrific events of 9-11, suicide
killings in Israel and divestment confer-
ences at the University of Michigan in
Ann Zousmer
Bloomfield Hills
His View Was Stifled
Wendy Wagenheim is wrong when she
states in her letter ("How Council
Works," July 7, page 6) that board
members of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit have
their views "heard and respected." I
know from firsthand experience.
I sat on the board of the Council
briefly several years ago. Executive
Director David Gad-Harf, Ms.
Wagenheim (who is affiliated with the