4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 8, 2002
OP/ED
0
Jhe llibzigun i aiIg
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JOHANNA HANINK
Editorial Page Editor
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NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
CCPlenty of other
leaders, in good
standing at the
U.N. General
Assembly, have
been responsible
for state terror."
- from yesterday's The Economist article,
"One brought tojustice, many at large,"
anticipating the Feb. 12 beginning of the
trial of Slobodan Milosevic for war
crimes in the Balkans.
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THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATIVELY SPEAKING
The ugly, unfair and unjust case of Rabih Haddad
BABAWOLE AKIN AINA STRANGER IN THE CORNER
A s an international case: Institutions usually make examples' of
student, I have a Haddad has been detained on a visa vio- guilty individuals to signal a change in atti-
deep and some- lation - of a tourist visa, while he was in tude or culture; a perfect example can be
times fearful respect of the process of applying for U.S. citizenship. seen in the indictment of the very rich and
the law. This is not the This is highly unusual. Before Sept. 11, sit- powerful in the case of Alfred Taubman.
result of a long held uations like this were allowed to slide pro- Examples are usually very public and the
intellectual interest in the vided the applicants were involved in the punishment is normally severe.
legal system or a feeling naturalization process, which Haddad was. Haddad does not fit the profile of a pub-
of overwhelming and The relief organization that Haddad co- lic example at all; he is a respected mem-
burning pride in that founded, Global Relief, has been blacklist- ber of the community, a good father and
piece of legal beauty otherwise referred to ed by the Dept. of the Treasury as having husband and is most likely not a terrorist.
as the American Constitution. Instead, this suspected links to the al-Qaida terrorist Why does "the system" (for lack of a bet-
particular feeling is the result of the hard- network. This allegation, which has had the ter identifier) feel the need to punish a man
nosed reality that, in my case, all those automatic effect of erasing all the positive accepting enough of U.S. culture to actual-
wonderful amendments and civil liberties work done by Global Relief in the public ly apply for citizenship?
do not apply. I am not a U.S. citizen, hence eye and tainting this Muslim American I do not have the answers to these ques-
those protections that pertain to U.S. citi- Charity irreparably, has not been substanti- tions. What I do know, from the perspec-
zens I do not enjoy. ated at the time of this writing. tive of a non-citizen, is that Haddad, for
This fact of life is quite simple and Global Relief's assets have also been whatever reason, left himself and his fami-
quite easy to forget when you interact with seized. Finally, Haddad has been a law abid- ly without the protection of a visa and he
people who take these rights for granted. ing, constructive member of the Ann Arbor - and they - will pay greatly and unjust-
For me a Minor in Possession citation, community for over 10 years. He had been ly for that oversight.
especially in these times, could mean especially active as a counselor and a leader The sad irony lies in the fact that Had-
deportation, the end of my college career within the Muslim Community. dad was applying to become a U.S. citizen,
as I know it and close to 100 grand down In my mind there is no doubt that Mr. a part of the same country, institutions and
the toilet. Haddad will get the short end of the stick laws that now detain him because he is not.
With this in mind, I watched the Rabih no matter the outcome of the accusations. The U.S. government has every right to
Haddad case with great interest because I Even if Haddad is proven innocent of the enforce its laws and will be within its right
knew from my own personal experience terrorist affiliation allegations against him, to deport Haddad and his family for a visa
that his standing in the community and his he will still lose out in the end. He and his violation. However, the fact that the Had-
stature would have no positive impact on family will most likely be deported on dad situation is legally legitimate makes it
how he was treated. The U.S. government account of his expired visa. My question is, neither fair nor just.
is no respecter of people, for whatever rea- why?
son. Why is Rabih Haddad being made an Babawole AkinAina can be reached
I begin my analysis with the facts of the example of? at babawole@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Writing a Letter to the editor? Our address has changed. Now, e-mail lters@michigandaiycom
Address the real problem:
Disparities in K-12
education, not in the SATs
To THE DAILY:
Once again I am disappointed by the
Daily's lack of regard for actual facts. The
editorial, This is only a test (2/5/02) promotes
numerous falsehoods, first of which is that
the SAT is heavily weighted in the admis-
sions process. In reality, the SAT is worth
12 points, as opposed to 80 points for high
school GPA and 20 points for having a cer-
tain skin color.
The editorial also makes the SAT out to
be a test of nothing more than how well a
student is prepared for the SAT. However,
data from former Harvard admissions offi-
cer Robert Kiltgaard show that there is a
.372 correlation between SAT scores and
freshman GPA, as opposed to a .273 corre-
lation betweeun high school GPA and college
freshman GPA. While a .372 correlation
might not seem like much, it is truthfully
the best measure of college success that has
ever been found. That is, of course, unless
the Daily would also like to believe that col-
lege grades aren't any measure of college
success either.
What's really sad though, is the misguid-
ed belief that the SAT discriminates against
black students. The SAT isn't discriminat-
ing, it's just revealing the unfortunate truth
that black students are more likely to have
had lousy grade school and high school edu-
cations. Instead of pretending that the test is
the problem, why not address the real prob-
lem of how to improve K-12 education?
DAN LEVI
LSA senior
Raiji's message is good,
means of delivery is not
To THE DAILY:
We are writing in response to Manish
Raiji's column, Attn. women: You don't stand a
chance (2/6/02). In this column, Raiji brings up
solid points about the stigma attached to the
victims of rape, but at the same time he is
undermining his own message by furthering
unproven accusations. It is completely unnec-
essary for Raiji to make such an attack on
Beta with the "GHB(eta)" pun when it does
not help the point of the article in any way.
For what reason does he single out this specif-
ic house of guys? Does he point his finger at
any other University students who have been
accused of rape over the past years?
Raiji complains in his column about girls
being stereotyped as "whiny bitches" when
they say they have been raped, but he is
stereotyping this entire group at the fraternity
as men who use GHB to drug girls. This is just
an unsuccessful attempt to make himself seem
clever or funny. If one of Raiji's roommates or
housemates were to be accused of rape, should
everyone consider him to be a rapist or person
with the intent to rape as well? We think the
"absurdity is self-evident" of this question.
We feel it is important to put a spotlight on
the necessity for rape victims to be taken seri-
ously, defended, and supported. We fully
stand by the message of this column, but not
all the means by which it was conveyed.
Uncalled for personal attacks only detract
from the aim of Raiji's column.
EMILY LITZNERSKI
SNRE junior
LINDSAY Fox
LSA junior
LETTERS POLICY
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FROM THE UNIVERSITY WIRE
Bush: A poor choice for a Nobel Peas
STAFF EDITORIAL Bush's leadership has become more ques-
by the UCLA Daily Bruin tionable. During his State of the Union
Alfred Nobel must have turned in his
grave when President Bush's nomination for
the Nobel Peace Prize was confirmed Mon-
day. Harald Tom Nesvik, a member of Nor-
way's parliament, nominated both Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the
award, supporting his endorsement by citing
Bush's work against terrorism and his advo-
cating world peace after
the Sept. 11 attacks. U. CALI]
While there is no
arguing that Bush has Los ANGE.Est
been a leader in the war against terrorism,
this alone does not make a Nobel prize win-
__ T 1 _ 5 ,,1 +, - i--+, - _ ,
address, for example, he referred to Iran,
Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil"
and intimated that the War on Terrorism
should be carried to these nations. The prob-
lem is other nations, including Russia, all of
NATO and various Arab states, don't
believe the military effort should extend
beyond Afghanistan. As far as they are con-
cerned, Bush can go at it alone - so much
for "fraternity."
ORNIA To his credit, Bush has
worked toward "the abolition
or reduction of standing
armies." His bombing campaign over
Afghanistan has effectively dismantled the
Tlhnregime anit-, fnrg'pc - ganting
ce Prize nominee
iban for their actions on Sept. 11 is one
thing, but carrying out a full-fledged cru-
sade against other nations without first fully
exploiting the utility of international coali-
tions and organizations - not just once, but
often - does not resonate with the concept
of promoting peace worldwide. But Bush is
spending money on it anyway.
On Monday, President Bush sent Con-
gress a $2.1-trillion budget, fashioning the
largest increase in military spending in two
decades. The budget allocates a $550 billion
increase in defense spending over the next
10 years - all for the sake of the War on
Terrorism.
If Bush is truly concerned about enhanc-
ing world peace, he might consider using
some~ o~f hisbomb-mnev to work onesab
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