4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 6, 2001 L71 jE wtichtout, 143ativ 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily. letters@umich.edu Enter the Manifesto: Organizational'politricks' DUSTIN J. SEIBERT THE MANIFESTO EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors 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. T he so-called democracy that is the United States bears the daunting reputa- tion as having a diverse population consisting of countless ethnic groups sprinkled across 50 states of independence. We have no official language and we allow numerous religions, with rituals and practices varying vastly from culture to culture. On top of that, our society promotes individuality while shunning it at the same time. Taking these factors into consideration, it should be no surprise that an unhealthy level of prejudice, ethnocentrism, and general misunderstanding will occur between differ- ent people sharing the same mass of land. For this reason, groups are established. No matter your interest, orientation or obsession, there are a number of people who identify with you and would love nothing more than to socialize with those whom they feel most comfortable with, at the risk of social or parental non-conformity or rejection. Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, I am set- ting the proverbial stage ... It is the nature of men to fear, scorn, or misinterpret what they fail to understand, and so I have noticed this on repeated occasions with groups on our campus -- namely the black-oriented organizations. It has been argued on behalf of the majority that these collectives and events could be considered racist, for no other reason than the fact that they are geared towards minority groups that have screamed oppression for so many years. The groups that promote the uplifting, achievement, and general harmony of blacks in America are viewed as just another form of self-inflicted separation that we have strived for years to eliminate. This viewpoint could not be more inaccurate. The idea of embracing one's culture may be foreign to Caucasians, simply because they are and have been the majority in this country. Nearly every ethnic group on campus has an organization of sorts to claim based on their cultural or religious backgrounds, be it Indians, Asian groups or even the nationwide Jewish organization Hillel. The black groups are the ones primarily considered "racist," however, due to the fact that there exists the most tension between Blacks and Caucasians. The latter argue that if they were to create a group promoting the uplifting of Whites on this campus, then they would be considered "racist." These groups exist for what should be obvious reasons: Any group in any given social situation that can be considered a minority can be expected to come together. Similar physical and behavioral traits, com- mon interests and common customs, if not comfortably alone, will bring people together. Those of you who had a minority group at your high school who you witnessed sitting together at the same lunch table know exactly what I mean. It certainly does not mean that the given group will shun the majority, yet I believe that this is how it is perceived. Cam- pus minority groups like H.E.A.D.S., Sis- ter2Sister and Black Uplift exist to offer support, consolation and motivation to the people in the communities that they represent - there certainly exists no central hatred r revolt against members of other cult backgrounds. As far as black-oriented parties are con- cerned, there is most certainly no one stop- ping non-black individuals at the door for lack of proper skin pigmentation, yet you will see a sharp contrast between these parties and your common frat party, hence the reason that they even exist. Finally, to create a "White Uplift" organization would not neces- sarily be considered racist; it would simply be deemed silly in a society in which whi s ultimately possess the absolute power. . Now I'm not saying that these groups should represent every member as an individ- ual, nor am I saying that the groups are absolutely necessary for the advancement of their members. But what I do want to be understood is that these groups have no malicious inten- tions. No massive revolution is in the plans and no campus marches are slated for the near future. At least I hope not ... these da classes are taking up way too much of my time as it is. Knowledge. Dustin J. Seibert's column runs every other Tuesday. He can be reached via e-mail at dseibert@umich.edu. MSA candidates need to follow residence hall solicitation rules TO THE DAILY: The rights of students have been hurt by the very organization that represents them, as shown in the article, "Campaigning Amend- ments defeated at MSA meeting," (1/31/01). With the Michigan Student Assembly's defeat of an amendment that reprimands candi- dates for not following the University Housing Community Living Standards solicitation poli- cy, they disrespect the guidelines of the very residents they represent. It is unwise to anger student constituents by violating the rules of the very people who put MSA in office. I would not vote for a candidate that knocks on my door at 1 a.m. to disturb either my sleep or homework. This is the same as political can- didates soliciting your parents' home at 1 a.m. The residence halls are home for almost 10,000 students. Citizens would not vote for such a nuisance. Student government is supposed to protect the rights of its constituents and not ignore the rules that promote their own bureaucracy. If MSA wants support from the residence halls, it must follow the standards of that community. In addition, in Article II of the MSA Consti- tution, MSA is to "enact campus-wide regula- tions governing the conduct of its elections, campaigns and related activity." By ignoring the established housing policy of the residence halls and not punishing people who break these rules, MSA is violating its Constitution and promise to the students. Students have already shown their dislike for excessive campaigning by posting "No Solicitation" signs on their doors. To continue to show that residents are important to the MSA and the Michigan Com- munity, the University-established housing pol- icy should be respected by all. AMY AMENT LSA junior 4 U-Y ,'_ ~ /7 ? "Ssel P ie EXE. E Sm VEME THE PEIRSON WIIH TUF-MAST I Th17l(, CELL ?ICfli IIM1t4 & ALWAYS THE -LOWEST To AtgsWER, t7 .. Engineers know 'absolutely nothing' about basketball To THE DAILY: Upon reading Jeffrey Lev's uninformative letter to the editor, ("Daily should remove Goodstein's pencil, test sports skills," 2/2/00) I have come to the conclusion that Engineering students know absolutely nothing about basket- ball. Somewhere along the line when reading Raphael Goodstein's sports column, Lev dozed off and made up his own version of what he was saying. Clearly Lev has shown that what he said was accurate since he's resorted to the classic "let's see you pick up a ball" retort. I agree with Lev that the wins over Iowa and Indiana were great but that still doesn't make up for the fact that we are still sub .500. By the way, don't use the Illinois game as an example in the future. Yeah, maybe we should've won that game had the officiating been better, but that still doesn't account for Blanchard and Robinson hitting 44 of our 51 points, our 34 percent field goal average and our 61 percent free throw average. I don't know about you, but in Ann Arbor, you can't win like that. Oh yeah, I love how Lev has labeled Charlie Bell as a loser. Granted he is from Michigan State, but I do believe he has won more than anyone on this Michigan team can attest to. He will undoubtedly be in the NBA, so his comments do have validity and since he is the one out there playing against us and not you, then I will take his opinion over yours any day. It's nice to see that Lev is still rooting Michigan, because I am too and there are few of us out there, but by attacking a Daily writer, who is there to express his opinion and in this case, a very valid opinion, that shows that Lev is just as frustrated as those "bandwag- on jumpers" that he mentioned. This team has a long way to go before it gets back to the promise of yesteryear, but we need to find someone to take us there and that person isn't Brian Ellerbe, which, I do believe, was Goodstein's point. There is no arguing that this team doe 't have talent. Queen is probably one of the point guard potentials I've seen in a while and Moore will be a great presence when he improves on his post moves and the refs stop dogging him. However, they won't get better unless they have proper motivation and right now, that isn't happening. JASON ROOVER LSA junior Three un-American ideas for a failing economy0 NICK WOOMER BACK TO THE WOOM t appears the economy r is ailing - rapidly. . Bad economic news seems to be popping up every 15 minutes on the cable news networks. Last week, amidst what appeared to be frantic efforts by the Fed to cut interest rates, Daimler- Chrysler announced it would cut 26,000 jobs while consumer confi- dence hit its deepest slump in four years. Hope- fully I'm just jumping to conclusions, because a bad recession could have terrible human costs. Consumer spending has played an impor- tant role in the current economy - accounting for two-thirds of it - even though real incomes for most people didn't rise signifi- cantly over the recent "economic boom." How can consumer spending fuel a growing econo- my when most consumers aren't making much more than they were during the last recession? They spent money they didn't have. Americans have more debt now than they've ever had risk by putting their money on the line, hoping that there will eventually be some sort of return on their investment. Meanwhile, they wait up at night worrying about whether this investment will pay off. Surely the poor capitalist should be compensated for all this grief... No. The "theory of risk" is an insult to all working people because it assumes that a person who works in a factory (for example) just comes home from work, cracks open a Bud and flips on Wheel of Fortune without a care in the world. But in reality, working people usually risk a whole lot more everyday when they're on the job than even the most reckless investor. If a person who earns his or her living doing physical labor gets injured on the job and can't work anymore then he or she risks being plunged into a financial abyss. Generally speak- ing, investors never put their entire livelihood on the line in the same way that most workers do every day when they're at work. Workers do not have the luxury of having to decide whether to invest in a particular venture or not. Most Amer- icans work because they have to pay their mort- gage, not to turn $250,000 into $1 million. much, people tend to favor leisure time over earning more money. Why is it that so many highly paid American doctors spend more time on the golf course than they do practicing medi- cine while Cuban doctors who are paid the equivalent of $15 a month are developing dynamic new cancer treatments? Time preference across classes Apologists for capitalism like to espouse the virtues of "rugged individualism," patience and thriftiness; any individual who internalizes these values is bound to succeed in the free market system (and they say this while label- ing socialism a "naive pipe dream"). This way, the rich (who often save a good portion of their earnings) can look on the poor (who often spend money when they have it) disdain. After all, if the poor just saved tI] money for once they would soon escape poverty. This type of thinking goes to the roots of capitalist ideology: The reason the poor are poor is that they lack proper discipline. This excuse for tolerating poverty fails to appreciate that the nature of being poor often makes~ it nruudent tospndne mnv afa