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September 27, 2001 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 2001-09-27

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4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 27, 2001

OP/ED

I

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420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
daily.letters@umich.edu

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.

NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
It's totally
inconsistent with the
kind of behavior we
would have expected
from our people, so it has
been very upsetting to
learn of this."
- Orin Smith, president of the Seattle-based
Starbucks Coffee chain as quoted in
yesterday's Guardian newspaper of London
after learning that a New York City franchise
had charged rescue workers $1 3Ofor three
cases of water used to treat victims of shock
after the World Trade Center attacks.

01 AMERICAN4S TO RESUME. TIW1R~
_... = -, 1AQL tLIVES. MA4'I IL ,
\4X.L.L C4OM4E TO
BWbAICAS1 AS i T95RE
~ ACE 90OOTHER NEWS
AMO i NEB CAm'tio -N -..o
I CovCi&

4

4

Dictating the pace of our recovery
DAVID HORN HORNOGRAPHY

I

portsC enter
defines routine.
There is some-
thing wonderfully assur-
ing about the show's
guaranteed appearance
along your channel-surf-
ing route at certain
h.early-morning hours.
Late at night, whether
studying, partying, you keep seeing bits
and piece of the ESPN's "flagship" pro-
gram, which it plays ad infinitum.
"Oh, yeah ... I saw the Knicks high-
lights when I stopped at home before...
Yeah, I heard the end of the Giants' game
was ridiculous. I want to see that at some
point tonight." For sports fans, the constant
stream of the boys from Bristol is like a
warm bed - it'll be there waiting for you
at the end of a long day.
But Osama bin Laden screwed it all up.
We were left with what my friends and I
referred to as "bizarro-SportsCenter." If we
watched other television shows as reli-
giously as SportsCenter, we would have
coined "bizarro-Letterman" or "bizarro-
Total Request Live."
This bizarro phenomenon was the
result of a decision by the powers that be,
which suggests that everyone in the coun-
try ought to mourn together, simultaneous-
ly.
Are they right? On one level, there is
something vulgar about a broadcast that
deals exclusively with a topic as relatively
trivial as sports to air so soon after an
attack like on Sept. 11. On the other hand,

some people want to see sports highlights
- if for no other reason than as an escape.
Granted, there were no sports being played
that Tuesday, or during the following
week. What resulted was a SportsCenter
that had become an alternate reality of
itself. Fewer flashy graphics, catchy intros
and segues, no witty bantering between
anchors. It was a SportsCenter devoid of
humor and fun.
And that's a problem. I've felt for the
past few weeks that I need to laugh.
There's nothing funny about what hap-
pened in New York, but there's nothing
really funny about TRL, either. There are
some who say that bin Laden, or whoever
perpetrated the attack on the 11th wanted
to disrupt our "American way of life."
Whoa. Big words. What does that mean? It
seems to mean bizarro-SportsCenter. It
seems to mean an America that has lost its
"swingin' '90s" sensibilities and needs to
sit Shiva for a while.
A few nights ago, I watched Craig Kil-
born's late-night talk show where he
revealed his (or his network's) plan for
gradually reintroducing humor back into
his show. It was all so calculated. CBS and
Kilbourn seem to know when it's time to
start laughing again - when producing a
show based on sarcasm and satire will be
profitable again.
CBS, ESPN, CNN, NBC, et al. are try-
ing to dictate the pace of our recovery.
They are in an advantageous position, as
24-hour broadcasting has become the ironi-
cally unidirectional town meeting of the
21st Century. If NBC never let Leno tell

jokes again, that would greatly influence
the emotional and psychological state of
this nation.
I don't want NBC to have any influence
in that. I don't want CNN to do a segment
on "returning to normalcy." Those net-
works are there for a reason, whether it be
24-hour news, 24-hour sports, 24-hour
"Friends"... They are not there to tell
America how to feel, and when to feel. I'll
laugh when I'm ready to laugh. Ted Turner
can do the same.
America has revealed itself to be too
self-aware. We have progressed through
the stages of denial, anger, grievance, etc.
at an accelerated pace. It has been acceler-
ated due to the rapidity of news cycles and
our acc.ess to information. It has been
accelerated because MSNBC found that
airing the footage of the crash can only be
profitable for so long, even if people are
not yet done grieving, or coming to terms
with what happened. It has been accelerat-
ed because ESPN found that bizarro-
SportsCenter ought not to last too long,
because most people want the comfort of
hours upon hours of Trey Wingo and Co.
to return.
America is made up of individuals - it
is not a market, or a target audience. Don't
allow Brian Williams or Bernard Shaw or
Peter Jennings to tell you when to cry, or
when to laugh. Time will heal your wounds
- your wounds, on your own time -
bizarro-SportsCenter will not.
David Horn can be reached
via e-mail at hornd@umich.edu.

V VIEWPOINTS

4

Students of color should question this war

BY PANTHER McALLISTER
AND MONIQUE LUSE

V LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

YAF: For the record,
we're not part of
anti-war movement
To THE DAILY:
I would like to set the record straight
concerning Young Americans for Free-
dom's position on the impending war and
our protest last Thursday. We were in no
way, by no stretch of the imagination,
"anti-war" as Jason Roover stated in his
Wednesday letter to the Daily. ("Bush
responsible for the protection of the United
States," 9/26/01).
In fact, we find the current anti-war sen-
timent to be closely allied with anti-Ameri-
can sentiment and the anti-war rally
Thursday motivated us to create a strong
patriotic presence. We understand fully that
it was the sacrifices of our predecessors
that gives us the freedom to protest.
We came to the Diag Thursday with the
intent to bolster patriotism on campus and
show our support for the U.S., its soldiers
overseas and to respect the lives of those
who have died because of, or for, our free-
dom. This includes those victims of the
World Trade Center attack and the brave
soldiers who have already given their lives
so that we may live in comfort.
Our love of the United States runs very
deep and we have the utmost respect for
those who volunteer to protect our free-
doms. We have a somber understanding of
the price of security and freedom. We real-
ize that -men will give their lives so that we
can have liberty and security.
That deserves the utmost respect. We
know that freedom is neither free nor
cheap. We are supportive of the means to
secure these freedoms and preserve our lib-
erties.
PETER APEL
LSA senior
The letter writer is chairman ofthe
University's chapter of the
Vnima A.- 4,;..4,,6 In. Prorlnm

LETTERS POLICY
J~fhe AuMic}i. an 1J14ii% rcf.<ltisletra t )ts tonia1
if. its. rcadt . ". is t'er kin Un~jii vebr>T i i t Fdts,.
e i.Ulr l'staf and ad iniStramtrs t' be givn p}
ority over others Lette}i must inltude the writers
th afniluon T her Da1ly will nrbIt, a, 3ter
not be olerated
word'T}. .1 lTh M ~ich ' 1i ft -re~vthe igh t
dit for .kngth clarty arid accur'icy Loge
iewuint nay be 4rr ndth a edr ..-
et ; be ru according to order eceved and he
etters shudb eu vI a7mai tto
dltien@umijiei or m n to rd Day at 420
Maynard St Edator can he reached e a eimejj
in persoii or ate ota ev
Wednesday's Daily
hours of good reading
TO THE DAILY:
September 26's issue was hands down the
strangest Daily ever.
I recently had a friend my age get mar-
ried, and I'll tell you, its not something to be
celebrated ("Married couples a rarity at 'U').
Domesticating one's self in one's college
years is a terrible, terrible tragedy. At least be
honest and say the real reason they did it,
which is to have an excuse to have sex.
But, kudos on the BAMN article ("BAMN
blasted for dominating racial issues").
The Adventures of BAMN and/or The Mas-
sive Power Trip of Jackie Bray makes for hours
and hours of interesting reading.
Also, Waj Syed ("Under the Flak: The
Second Coming") is the best columnist you
have there by a mile, simply because he is the
only one who doesn't constantly talk about
his personal life. Keep up the above-average
work.
CHRIS FICI
LSA iuninr

We are not pacifists. We are not peace
nuts.
But we do think that you should question
this war. We are black activists and we do
support our men and women in the armed
services.
This is not a piece about being anti-war;
it's a piece about how this war adversely
effects black people in the United States.
This country has a history of being
either violently racist, painfully exclusive,
or generally uninterested in the plight of
black people in American. This is a country
supposedly based on the concepts of free-
dom, basic human rights and equal opportu-
nity.
However the United States has been nei-
ther free, just, nor fair to its black residents.
Accepting these facts, it seems to us that
people should then sort out the facts of
what, according to George W., is going to
be a "long war" that will not be only fought
with bombs and air strikes but also with
ground warfare.
The most compelling problem that we
have with this war is who is going to die. A
disproportionate number of the American
men and women who will fight and die on

the frontlines will be black and Latino/a. It
is no accident, no sudden upsurge of patrio-
tism among America's poorest and most
poverty stricken citizens, that draws them
into the nation's military recruitment
offices.
Many blacks choose to join the armed
services because they see the military as the
only way to better their lives. There is noth-
ing wrong with choosing to join the armed
services - it is an honorable choice. How-
ever, when black and Latino/a people are
disproportionately represented in the mili-
tary, one must wonder why that is.
It is economics and opportunity correlat-
ed with racism and the historically dispro-
portionate allocation of resources that has
resulted in the ethnic makeup of our armed
services.
There are other factors influencing this
situation. This is directly related to the dis-
proportionate amount of recruitment that is
done in the inner city schools that blacks
and latinos attend. The armed services pro-
vide a career for the poorly educated and
unskilled young black and Latino/a men and
women that this society produces and the
most efficient way to pay for higher educa-
tion.
Blacks are playing catch up for more
than 400 years of oppression, disenfran-

chisement, violence and lack of economic
opportunities.
Many black youth are receiving sub-par
education and live in poverty-stricken
neighborhoods. Coming out of such a dis-
empowering situation, it is no wonder that
so many young black people see the mili-
tary as the ideal path to a life of structure,
stability and economic power - not to
mention the opportunity to go to college.
This is a sweet deal - except for now,
when we as Americans bury our heads in
the sand. So as we begin this long cam-
paign, let us not fall into the trap of dehu-
manizing any who human-being who will
die. Many of the casualties of this "war"
will be innocent foreign civilians as well as
American citizens who die as victims of
racism.
As we all fall in rank behind the Presi-4
dent and seek deserved justice, will we also
allow our nation's black sons and daughters
die as casualties of fundamentally racist
practices? We hope not. Question the war
along with us and others, starting tomorrow
on the Diag at 3 p.m.
McAllister and Luse are speaker and
vice-speaker of the Black Student Union,
respectively. Luse is an organizer of
tomorrow's rally on the Diag.

Guilt by association

BY FADI KIBLAWI
On May 12, 1828, Nat Turner reported
that there was a "great noise" in the heavens
and "the Spirit instantly appeared to me and
said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ
had laid down the yoke he had borne for the
sins of men, and that I should take it on and
fight against the Serpent, for the time was
approaching when the first should be the
last and the last should be the first." A few
months later, Turner, who was the most
popular black preacher for miles around, led
a slave rebellion killing all the white people
that he and his followers encountered. Men,
women, and children alike were brutally
massacred. It is documented that slaves
from miles around knew of the rebellion
beforehand.

more, "Jihad" is not a holy war in which all
Muslims take up arms and kill as many non-
Muslims as possible. Rather, Jihad literally
translates to "striving," and most of the time
encompasses internal personal efforts
towards the way of God. Many might say,
for instance, that a good example of Jihad in
America is Muslim women's wearing of the
hijab, or headscarf, in a society where any-
thing seen as different or strange is looked
down upon and even targeted.
While it is true that some rulers have been
overzealous in their application of "jihad," one
cannot deny that countless times in history,
many leaders from all across the religious and
ethnic spectrums have also been overzealous
as well. A good example of this is the Zionist
movement. While a Jewish state is something
that most people do not contest, and some-

agenda. To relate the struggle of the Palestini-
ans for independence, freedom, and natural
rights with the immoral and un-Islamic actions
of Osama bin Laden is not only misleading,
but dangerous as well. While I can say that
any act of terrorism is wrong, whoever com-
mits it, be it an individual or a state, it would
be wrong of me to implicate an entire people 4
or cause. While Nat Turner was wrong in
slaughtering numerous civilians, including
women and children, the struggle against slav-
ery was in no way wrong. One cannot deny
that for decades now the Israeli government
has irrationally imposed countless racist and
oppressive measures on the Palestinians with-
in Israel, as well as those within illegally occu-
pied territories. Therefore, the struggle as a
whole against this is in fact justified, despite
certain uniustifinhle ac tcommitted hv asmall -

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