4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 8, 2002 OP/ED 0 Jhe llibzigun i aiIg 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily corn EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK 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. 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. ,a MQVYOURH R N 'P-VfcOCa lh 51UK I ACT1VI$1 CMtJo SVO~tITY Olt CAMW'S, WO NEW GWRS R ~AVE '%ECK POVME D .. 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 The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other Uni- versity affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity andeaccuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Let- ters will be run according to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent over e-mail to letters@michigandaily.com or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached via e-mail at editpage.editors@umich.edu. Letters e-mailed to the Daily will be given priority over those dropped off in person or sent via the U.S. Postal Service. 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 Ft I WU~L1 W~ ~7~n1y~m4i)vLI~, ...... .. ..... ... ..... .