4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 19, 2000 Ulbe Sidgigjiuu &zir Creed rocks: The gospel according to a Daily columnist 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 daily.letters@umich.edu Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan MIKE SPAHN Editor in Chief EMILY ACHENBAUM Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. K ids come up to me on the street all the time and ask, "Hey, Kula: What is hip?" Let me just tell you, they're asking the right person. As a columnist at a college newspaper, I have the crucial task of sharing with thoses less cultured than myself exactly what constitutes the cutting' edge of trendy. It'sk my job - nay, duty - to enlighten the masses. People my age tend to need guidance in their lives. They wear the wrong Chris clothes, attend the wrong parties and Kula wear the wrongn clothes. I just want to help them realize A A ' their mistakes the best I can - on a weekly basis. For example, if I were to learn that many of my peers were listening to records by the Beatles, I would waste no time in setting them straight. The Beatles are very old, and most old music is just not hip. I would rec- ommend that they check out a younger, fresher band like Creed. Lead singer Scott Stapp has some of the best stage moves in rock, and he looks much better on a bed- room poster than John Lennon, who is dead. The same goes for literature buffs who devote themselves to relics like Shake- speare, Hemingway and Kerouac. Perhaps they've never heard of "Sex and the City" creator Candace Bushnell? She writes well, but more importantly, she has impeccable style and great teeth. I witness these types of embarrassing faults in judgment all the time, and they're not limited to popular culture. I see people eating bad foods, dating unattractive indi- viduals and studying useless majors. But, fortunately for these folks, I write a column in a college newspaper. As the voice of my generation in a 10- block radius, I have the opportunity to show these people the true way. I bear their bur- den on my back in the form of a 700-word article. I am the unsung shepherd to their flock. Of course, I'm not trying to imply that I'm a Christ-like figure - I'm just say- ing that on most Thursdays, I do bleed from the palms. There are so many issues calling for my attention, too. With the elections just a month off, I plan to discuss national politics at great length in the upcoming weeks. I have never voted in an election before and I will not vote in this one, but rest assured: I am your learned guide to the candidates. After all, I wouldn't be writing a column in the Daily unless I was well-versed in Amer- ican political theory - college newspapers are no place for the uninformed. The same goes for affirmative action, eating disorders and international affairs. My unique background as a white, middle- classed male who's never left North Ameri- ca allows me to write with true insight into these matters. If there's one thing in life that you can count on, it's that your local colum- nist has a topical, thought-provoking per- spective to be shared with you, week in and week out. Concerned about tensions in the Middle. East? Don't worry, I didn't review CDs at the Daily for three years without picking up a thing or two about Israel's peacemaking secrets. Confused about the state of the national economy? I have been pre-approved for Discover cards on numerous occasions. Looking to start a serious relationship? I can tell you every trick that Jack used on Chrissy in "Three's Company." Trying to conceal your sexual orienta- tion? I can tell you every trick that Jack used on Mr. Roper in "Three's Company." Other Daily columnists may try to pull the wool over your eyes with sneaky satire and references to '70s sitcoms, but I'll have none of that. Laughter may feel good for a moment, but it cannot match the long-last- ing impact of true wisdom passed down from a 21-year-old college student. On a weekly basis. In a college newspaper. Out of my ass. - Chris Kula can be reached via e-mail at ckula@umich.edu. Students should trust ethos in job hunt G Gpledge to explore and take into Iaccount the social and environmen- tal consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve those aspects of any organization for which I work.' This statement is the pledge of the Graduate Pledge Alliance, an organization that has, since 1996, been encouraging college graduates to look beyond prestigious positions and high salaries to find careers within companies that will respect their ideals. A graduating senior takes the pledge as a lifetime reminder that life has more to offer than power and prestige. Linking this pledge with the memorable experience of finding one's first "real" job after graduation is a way of ensuring that one's values will follow him through- out his professional life. Not only does the pledge signing show a concern, but also,the honest signer will always remember his or her revolt against greed and apathy at a time when traditionally, students look at little more than position, location, and salary. The lures that corporations offer can be tempting and the members of a gradu- ating class often fail to give their poten- tial employers a thorough background check. Due to a recent shortage of fund- ing for environmental awareness groups and the lack of popular media coverage on corporate ethical problems, students often have no way of knowing about the ignoble actions of corporations. A recruiter will only tell prospective employees about what is honorable and prestigious about the organization he rep- resents and all that advertising does is product promotion. A graduate should always research a company before accepting a position; this means more than looking at the corporate Web Site. A simple Internet search using a few search engines reveals enough published infor- mation that one can know all recent sig- nificant actions that one's potential employer has taken. The GPA's pledge encourages students to undertake this much research - if not more - and act upon one's findings. If the organization does nothing to benefit society as a whole, has a wide gap between executive and worker salaries, or has a history of civil suits, then the signers should neglect the company. They should also look at affirmative action stances, domestic part- ner benefit offerings and sweatshop labor practices. Simple neglect for a company is an effective form of resistance against even the most powerful corporate empires. Such resistance is necessary to encourage civic virtue in this profit-oriented society. Should graduating classes from the coun- try's most prestigious universities deny unethical corporations access to a large number of America's brightest, the tar- gets will invariably suffer. There, however, are many other means for changing corporate standards that students who are not near graduat- ing and those already in the work force can employ. One only needs to spread information and inform people of the consequences of the facts. There are many organizations on campus that do just that. The mission is simple: Inform poten- tial employees that a company acts unethically. The power against these cor- porations also lies in those who would consume their-goods and services. The strength of society is great, and the col- lective will of the populace can force companies to clean up their acts. 'I feel a little funny talking about women's Issues. I think we care about the exact same thing that men do.' - Former First Lady Barbara Bush at last night's Republican Feminist's con- ference in Southfield, held by the organization "'W Stands for Women." 0 Canning Org. Studies Palestinians need was right choice; their land, freedom fli Uff majirS abinl 'Oops,' he did it again Texas justice system an unjust disaster TO THE DAILY: I applaud Shirley Neuman's decision to eliminate the Organization Studies pro- gram from the list of possible concentra- tions approved by the College of LSA. This is a University, not a day-care center where professionals send their pre-adult- hood children off to play. A University is a place where you learn about important subjects such as math. history, English, science and art. It is not a place where you come to have a good time, and possibly take some classes that might, in a con- glomerated form, count towards some type of concentration in the end. First of all, most people don't even know what is involved in the Organization- al Studies program. I would assume that it is the study of organizations. e.g. a busi- ness (not the study of how to file your bank statements effectively every month). If you want to study business, go to the business school. Perhaps join the College of Engineering and study IOE. You could even get an economics degree and perhaps take some peripheral business riOE classes. I believe that every time the University g rants somebody a "fluff" degree, it cheapens the degrees we all have. "Fluff" degrees are essentially useless, considering the fact that when you tell a person you are studying one of these areas, they nod "yes" and murmur "uh huh, that's good" but they really have no idea what you're talking about and secretly feel sorry for your parents for spending all of that money. These are also the degrees we all joke about in private (you know: "Julie has a 3.7,"- "yeah, but her degree is in orga- nizational studies"- "oh"). The claim that an organizational degree is broad and inclusive of many aspects of life is laughable. To say this is to assume, by corollary, that every other degree is narrow and non-inclusive. If you are a pre- organizational studies major, do yourself and your parents a favor and study some- thing that will help you and society out in the future. Perhaps a concentration that might help in landing a job. BROCK VANDENBERG ALUMNUS TO THE DAILY: Recently the events in the Middle East has seen over 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers. Many of these stone throwing Palestinian civilians are children being matched by Israeli soldiers with live ammunition, rubber bullets and on the weekend by U.S.-built tanks and Apache helicopter gunships. I wonder, why is this going on? Why has this been continuously going on for over 50 years? I visited Israel this summer and realized why. Palestinians strive to become an independent people free of Israeli occupation and aggression. I condemn bloodshed on both sides, however Palestinians are now a people without a land, without a voice and many are refugees strewn all across the globe. They are a people subjected to daily humiliations and frustrations and live in poverty. When we see Palestinians on CNN demonstrating and throwing stones they are expressing their frustrations which have been growing since 1948. As any other people, Palestinians deserve their independence and deserve to live freely on their own land in peace without Israeli occupation. Peace "talks" won't will solve this problem, international law will. United Nations resolutions 242 and 338 (among others) call upon Israel, the occu- pying power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is applicable to all the territories occupied by Israel and calls for the return of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Palestinian people. It's as simple as that. Palestinians need freedom. They need their land back. They don't enjoy seeing their own children being killed every day - however as long as Israel occupies parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem what we see on TV will happen again and again. Their leaders can "talk" about peace forev- er but peace won't happen on the ground until the Palestinian people regain their freedoms and occupied lands. 0 0 0 SAM DAJANI DENTAL HYGIENE JUNIOR ~ ; ;-> D espite Texas Governor George W Bush's repeated statements on his confidence in the state's criminal justice system, it's terrifying, but not surprising to see another major mistake. This is the state that removed 36 inmates from death row last year by electrocuting them, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. No one knows what percentage of them may be innocent. This summer, Gary Graham's pleas to Bush went unanswered and his death sen- tence was carried out. Most recently, another man claimed responsibility for a crime two men had already been convict- ed of - but his pronouncement went unnoticed. Texas prison inmate Achim Josef Marino said "my conscience sick- ens me" because two men were serving life sentences in prison for the October 1988 rape and murder of 20-year-old Nancy DePriest. Marino is currently serving time for other offenses. His confession was made to the gover- nor in a February 1998 letter. Marino included evidence linking him to the crime - the victim's keys and the deposit bags she had from work could be found at Marino's parents' house. Police confirmed investigators collected the evi- dence from his parent's house after they received an initial letter from Marino in 1996. Worse, the DNA of two men con- victed in the rape and murder of DePriest did not match that of the semen taken from the victim. So why did Marino's letter not make an impact? When evidence is presented that could free two men from life sen- tences, why is it not leapt upon? This is what those shocked by the news are thinking. The question is, what on earth were the staff at Bush's office thinking? Their answer is distressingly weak. Once arriving at the governor's office, the letter slipped through the cracks, and no one else saw it. Mike Jones, a spokesman for Governor Bush's office, confirmed the letter arrived in 1998 and remains on file, although it was never actually read by Bush. More than 1,000 letters from inmates are received by the governor's office every year. Standard policy calls for forwarding them to the appropriate law enforcement agency. Marino's letter was not forwarded. Jones said the letter indicated a copy was also sent to Travis County district attor- ney Ronnie Earle. In such cases a letter received by the governor's office is not forwarded, according to Jones, to "avoid duplication." But Earle said the letter never arrived at his office; he became aware of it only after the Austin Police Department received a copy. Earle says he has no idea how the police received Marino's letter, unless Marino sent it there by mistake. Marino might have sent it to the wrong county by mistake. But that does not change the grave mistake the gover- nor's office made, and the mistakes both the Texas and other state criminal justice systems make after they convict someone with countering DNA evidence for life to death. Sloppiness has inhumane conse- quences. What if these two mhen are found now found innocent? What if they had been sentenced to death, been elec- trocuted, all while Marino's letter was lost in a red-tape 'oops'? An inmate says he committed a crime that two other men are currently serving time for - and no one heard him. Maybe Bush will hear the outcry: Your system is an unjust disaster. THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATI VELY SPEA KING ~1 D TO (EQ MY-(~G~FO A'ATAT L4CORCX 1!' 0, } W e here at the University are in a quag- mire. Do we face injustice only when it is popular to do so, or do we face it no matter mask it decides to wear? I am proud to be a Michigan student. The two years I spent away from Ann Arbor in between my undergraduate and graduate studies made me crave to return so that I could re-enter the world of activism and feel, once again, like I was doing some- thing. I am a Palestinian. I am proud of that too. Lately, however, I feel the injustice against my people stronger than ever. I am a member of many campus organizations and have taken it upon myself to grasp a leadership role in many of the recent rallies, protests and vigils held to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, clusions. Here is a truth that most don't know. Israel receives about $5 billion in U.S. aid every year. To break it down, Israel receives $1.2 billion in economic aid, $1.8 billion in military aid and close to $2 billion in extra perks from the Penta- gon's budget. In fact, every time Israel returns more lands to Arabs, it asks for more money from the U.S. In the recent failed peace talks with Syria, Israel demanded a package of more than $17 billion to pull out of illegally occupied lands in the Golan Heights. Just facts. Israel, a nation with a population less than New York City or Hong Kong, is the recipient of the most American foreign aid, receiving more than one-third of America's annual bilat- eral foreign aid. Pretty amazing. Every other billion. It is a staggering difference when you consider that while there are 6.1 million people living in a industrialized economy in Israel, there are more than 1.2 billion people living in the third world countries I just mentioned. When you add in Pentagon perks, as of October 1999, Israel had received over $90 bil- lion in American aid. $90 billion. When this is all divvied up, each Israeli family of five receives $75,000 of American taxpayer money. That number is in fact even higher since Arab citizens of Israel, who number 18 percent, are deprived government assistance. I wonder how many American families of five have ever received $75,000 from their own government. America has never tied its huge aid pack- ages to Israel with performance at the peace