Opinion

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Dry Bones Zgo HAW CTS,

Editorial

Stem Cell Possibilities

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resident Barack Obama kept
a campaign promise to the
country's medical researchers
this month and issued an executive order
ending federal restrictions on embryonic
stem-cell research.
The move was especially encouraging
for Michigan scientists who saw vot-
ers ease the state's own restrictions in
November. It puts Michigan in position
to accept federal funding and gives a tre-
mendous boost to universities involved in
this field. The A. Alfred Taubman Institute
at the University of Michigan has been
especially active in this research and was
a major supporter of the successful state
ballot proposal.
Taubman has said the embryonic cells
have shown a potential for treatment of
breast and prostate cancer, Alzheimer's
and spinal cord injury.
Jewish leaders around the country were
quick to approve of the president's action
and urged Congress to codify it into law.
"The Jewish value of pikuach nefesh
teaches that preserving life and promot-

ing health are among the most precious
of our responsibilities," said Rabbi David
Saperstein, director of the Religious Action
Center of Reform Judaism. "And when one
delays in doing so it is as if he had shed
blood."
Rachel Goldberg, director of aging
policy for B'nai B'rith International, added
that "unlocking federal dollars for research
will knock down critical barriers our top
researchers have faced and allow them to
go back to what they do best — making
discoveries:'
These barriers included limiting the
number of embryonic cell lines, which are
far more adaptable for medical purposes,
that could be used and working predomi-
nantly with cells taken from adults.
Conservatives argue somewhat disin-
genuously that greater progress in treating
actual medical conditions has been with
adult stem cells in recent years. But that is
because there were simply so many more
of them with which scientists could work.
They also point to a lack of controls on
human cloning in the president's order.
But this is a matter for Congress to take up

THE PASSOVER
MIRACLES WERE SO
SUPERNATURAL THAT
MANY SEWS 010 NOT
BELIEVE WHAT THEY
SAW.
TRUE!

THE PURIM MIRACLE
WAS SO NATURAL
THAT MANY SEWS
010 NOT SEE IT AS
A MIRACLE.

in drafting its legisla-
tion and there is cer-
tainly no support for
human cloning there.
There is a touch of
unnecessary trium-
phalism in statements
that President Obama
WHO KNOWS WHICH ‘
has "put science over
BUT WHEN IT
KIND OF MIRACLE IT
politics:' That fails
HAPPENS WE
to recognize that
WILL TAKE TO
WON'T BELIEVE
Americans of good
RESCUE MOOERN
IT!
will and integrity
ISRAEL?
WHO
do have serious res-
KNOWS?
ervations about the
morality of using
embryos for research,
even when told the
embryos would come
mostly from fertility
clinics, were unwanted
wiww.drybonesblog.corn
and otherwise be dis-
carded.
Overall, however, the president appears
his own party, moving embryonic steam
to have knocked one out of the park. While cell research forward is an unquestioned
many aspects of his stimulus package
victory for the Americans who need it
have come under fire, even by members of most.

■

Reality Check

Shouts And Murmurs

0

ne of the most electrifying
moments in recent Detroit
history was Barbara-Rose
Collins leading a rump session of the City
Council in a spirited rendition of "Onward
Christian Soldiers." I hope she takes
requests because next time I'd like her to
sing "My Funny Valentine."
Aren't you kind of glad that people don't
behave in real life the way they do in TV
commercials? How could anyone survive
in a world that stupid?
If college basketball players spent as
much time in the classroom as they do
in tattoo parlors, everyone would be a lot
better off.
I just can't help it. Whenever I see a
young person with visible tattoos or
smoking a cigarette, I mentally place them
in the idiot file.
Frank Sinatra singing Nelson Riddle's
arrangement of "I've Got You Under My
Skin" still represents the apogee of pop
music.
Whenever you start feeling depressed,

just remember how long it's been
since you've had to listen to "The
Macarena."
The most touching moment
I've experienced in recent mov-
ies was the wedding sequence
in Defiance. Forced from their
homes, their families murdered,
the Bielski partisans were deter-
mined to hold on to Yiddishkeit
however they could.
Which reminds me of the story
about David Ben-Gurion's visit
to one of the displaced persons
camps in Europe in 1945. The
haggard survivors greeted him by spon-
taneously breaking into song. They sang
"Hatikvah," and his biographer says this
tough political infighter broke down and
wept.
Whenever I walk into a restaurant
where the piped-in music is loud I usually
walk right out again because I assume the
food is going to be lousy.
On the other hand, listening to Dorothy

Ashby playing jazz harp at the
Cafe Gourmet in Highland
Park is one of my favorite
memories of the 60s.
About twice a year, I must
go down to Mexican Village
and order the Arizonian.
That's as often as my heart-
burn can stand.
Did you ever think you'd
be able to get a freshly baked
bagel in Holland, Michigan? Is
this a great country or what?
I am convinced this is
going to be the Tigers' year. Of
course, I've been convinced of that every
spring since 1956.
I am not convinced, however, that this
will be the Lions' year. They are living
proof that consistency is vastly overrated
as the hallmark of greatness.
If I could visit any five cities to which
I have never been they would be Buenos
Aires, Prague, Dublin, Stockholm and Rio.
Speaking of Buenos Aires, one of my

favorite writers is Jorge Luis Borges, who
used Argentina as a setting for most of his
short stories. In one of them, he describes
a wealthy family from Spain who settle
a ranch in the remote, isolated pampas.
They record births and deaths meticu-
lously in a family Bible until in a few
generations they lose the ability to write.
Sometimes I feel that's where America is
headed, too.
I once read that on the waterfront of
Stockholm one can purchase herring right
out of the barrel prepared any way you
choose. And you wonder why I want to go
there.
Ninety-five percent of what appears on
the Internet under the guise of news is
garbage, the opinions of people who once
read a book and think that makes them
an expert. Which is why the demise of
newspapers is a disaster for an informed
public. ___

George Cantor's e-mail address is

gcantor614@aol.com .

March 19 2009

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