4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 9, 2002
OP/ED
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"He looks like
America - jolly,
happy and slightly
overweight."
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- Marketing strategist Al Ries, on
fast-food guru and Wendy's founder
Dave Thomas, as quoted by the Associated
Press. Thomas died yesterday of liver cancer.
Collective safety trumps individual rights
MANISH RAIJI NOTHING CATCHY
rust us." antee vague notions of "rights" (such as ual, this question is largely unnecessary.
T h a t' s due process) in the case of terrorism, But when that contract is violated by the
the answer because of the fact that terrorists are capa- individual (or, in this case, a group of indi-
given by the U.S. gov- ble of striking at speeds that the legal viduals), the entire social contract must
eminent when justifying process is incapable of responding to. necessarily adapt - even if that means
its force against America has quickly learned the rules relaxing the supposedly "inalienable"
'. Afghanistan. "Osama of the club, but it has not, as yet, learned rights of the individual. After all, if the
bin Laden is to blame, how to play along with its brethren. Just as individual is not playing by the same rules,
the Taliban had been America responded to the felling of the then the game can no longer be played
harboring and support- World Trade Center with full force, it fairly.
ing him. Trust us." must allow - indeed, it must support - This dilemma between individual rights
Evidence? "Trust us." India and Israel when they respond in kind versus collective security isn't as far-
America has entered a fraternity of to similar attacks. fetched, nor as horrifying, as one would
sorts; a brotherhood whose most knowl- A state's primary goal is to preserve imagine from reading my words.
edgeable members are India and Israel. the lives of its citizens. The safety of the In 1861, the southern states decided
Who would have thought that New York populous is far more important, since civil that they no longer wished to play the
City would come to empathize with Kash- liberties mean nothing to a dead popula- same game as the northern states and
mir and the West Bank? tion. When Israel loses 25 citizens to ter- seceded from the Union. Abraham Lincoln
This isn't a club that America ever rorism, it must use whatever means-it has decided that the preservation of the collec-
wanted to join. It quickly learned the rules to protect its citizens; when India's Parlia- tive was of utmost importance, above and
of the game - a country suffering from ment building is attacked, it must do the beyond any individual southern citizen.
terrorist attacks cannot sit on its hands and same. The Civil War was not a pretty war; inno-
wait for the legal process to solve the Terrorism thrusts defenders of democ- cent people were slaughtered left and
threat of terrorism. The basic premise of ratic institutions into an interesting dilem- right. But I am secure in saying that the
the legal system rests on two things: A ma. On one hand, there is the seemingly greater good was secured by the unfortu-
Yossarian-esque unwillingness to die (on intuitive, democratic notion of individual nate murder of countless people.
the part of both the criminals and the sys- civil liberties. On the other hand, there is Furthermore, the individual today is
tem as a whole), along with an explicit the notion of the protection of the whole. often subjugated by the state for the pur-
understanding that the legal process will Democracy must thus question itself very poses of the collective - with full bless-
not be threatened by the criminals. When seriously about which is more important: ing from democrats. Redistributive 'tax
either of these suppositions degrade, the The individual or the society? schemes take money away from the rich
legal process must adapt, or else it will be This moral dilemma was explored in (thus infringing on the individual's right to
destroyed. the movie "Swordfish," when Gabriel keep his wealth) and give to the poor -
A classic example of the degradation of Shear (John Travolta) asks Stanley Jobson assuming that social equality is more
the second premise is organized crime, (Hugh Jackman) how many people Jobson important than individual property rights.
where criminal syndicates subvert the would be willing to kill to save the lives of So too with terrorism, both here and
legal process by bribing officials and/or a million people. One? Two? Ten? 100? abroad. In response to terrorism, the Unit-
killing police officers. Whereas "normal" 1,000? ed States cracks down in order to secure
criminals try to evade the law, organized Is it morally justified for the state to the greater good. The U.S. has quickly
criminals attack the law. Russia is suffer- act, in the protection of its population, in learned something that India and Israel has
ing from this problem right now, and its sometimes violent manner toward others, known for far too long: When a nation is
inability or unwillingness to respond is even if innocent people suffer? Should the plagued by individuals who aren't playing
doing untold damage to the country. state act with the preservation of the col- by the rules, the rules have to be aban-
In the case of terrorism, both premises lective in mind, sometimes ignoring the doned.
of the legal system are degraded: Not only freedoms of the individual?
are terrorists intent upon destroying the During normal times, when the two Manish Raiji can be reached via
entire system, but they are also uncon- basic tenets of the social contract are e-mail at mraiji@umich.edu.
cerned with dying. It is impossible to guar- upheld by both the state and the individ-
V LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
0
Students are the ones
to thank for bringing
fall break to 'U'
TO THE DAILY:
At their December meeting, the Uni-
versity Board of Regents agreed to
change the academic calendar to include
a fall study break. There will be academ-
ic benefits from this hiatus, and I think
both faculty and students will put it to
good use.
But just as important is the fact that
this change came about solely because of
the efforts of students. There has been
faculty and student interest in a fall break
for years. This year, however, the Michi-
gan Student Assembly proved that prepa-
ration and perseverance can change the
status quo.
I congratulate MSA President Matt
Nolan and the other MSA members who
researched what other schools have done
and evaluated the impact that a two-day
break would have on the number of class
meetings in future fall terms at the Uni-
versity.
They took their case to deans, regents
and the Faculty Senate.
Their approach was articulate and
thorough. I am very impressed with how
effectively these students worked within
the system to bring constructive change.
Good job!
I hope the establishment of a fall
break leads to greater confidence in stu-
dent government and its ability to work
collaboratively with the University's
administration.
LESTER MONTS
University Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Community High school
lottery not classist
Goodstein's column
'ludicrous': Spurrner
out of Carr's league
TO THE DAILY:
I enjoy reading your paper but when I
see an column like the one Raphael
Goodstein wrote in Monday's edition
("Help is out there for Navarre and the
offense,"), I am left to question the stan-
dards the Daily uses when deciding what
is suitable for print.
For Goodstein to actually waste a col-
umn suggesting Michigan hire'Steve
Spurrier as the offensive coordinator is
ludicrous.
Spurrier will in all likelihood become
the highest paid coach in the NFL next
season - a far cry from playing second
fiddle to Lloyd Carr. In addition, why
would a coach from any major football
program voluntarily accept a demotion? I
just hope the Daily doesn't print a col-
umn next week suggesting Bill Martin
hire Coach K. to assist Tommy Amaker.
NIRAJ PATEL
LSA sophomore
LETTERS POLICY
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. a
A
TO THE DAILY:
I agree that the Ann Arbor Public
Schools should work to become more
integrated, but your singling out of
Community High School ("Money
Matters," 1/7/01) is unwarranted and
incorrect.
Unlike Pioneer High School and
Huron High School, Community does
not have a designated district in Ann
Arbor. Each year a lottery is held to fill
some 100 spots for the entering ninth
grade class.
Having applied to and graduated
from Community, I can tell you that no
one is discouraged or prevented from
tant to realize that Community has a
much smaller student body than Pio-
neer or Huron (about 450 compared to
over 2,000 each), lacks a cafeteria (stu-
dents bring food or eat at restaurants)
and as I have stated earlier in this let-
ter, Community does not have a district
from which it forms its student body.
Thus any disparities in the Community
student body, statistical or otherwise,
arise from the students themselves,
who should in no way be subject to
your disapproval for electing to enter a
school where they all have an equal
chance of acceptance. I strongly doubt
the lottery computer program used in
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