4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 13, 2002
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ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
letters@michigandaily.com
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EDITED AND MANAGED BY
STUDENTS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890
JON SCHWARTZ
Editor in Chief
JOHANNA HANINK
Editorial Page Editor
"Grade inflation?
Are they kidding?
Dude, my grades
are not inflated."
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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.
- Harvard Crimson columnist Arianne
Cohen, on the sentiment "strung
out students" exchange over breakfast
in Harvard dining halls. The column,
titled "Where are my inflated grades?,"
appeared in yesterday's Crimson.
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Misrepresentation: A sign of The Times
NICK WOOMER BACK TO THE WOOM
46 A 11 the News necessarily much of a stretch to infer that when we see on page Al where the Times is putting
That's Fit to Iran's president says his country wants "peace- words into the Iranian president's mouth. This
Print" - this ful relations with all nations of the world," he again doesn't second-guess "Senior military
pompous assertion appears doesn't mean Israel as well. officials"' motives, much less stick words into
every day at the top of the Still, there are serious problems with the their mouths. Rather, it questions the credibili-
front page of the most over- way MacFarquhar wrote his story. First, the ty of the "Afghans" by stating that said mili-
rated newspaper in the "except Israel" part is tacked onto the end of tary officials "sharply question(ed)" the
world. Reading The New Khatami's quote so that if someone reads the Afghans' "assertions." When we say that
York Times regularly (or, sentence quickly (as people tend to do when someone makes an "assertion" it usually
perhaps, The Wall Street they're reading stories in newspapers) he or she implies that there's less-than-adequate reason
Journal) is part of what it is to be an informed might think that Khatami actually said "we for them to be saying whatever they're saying
member of America's elite class - to be one of intend to have ties and peaceful relations with (see how I use the word in the first sentence of
the people whose sentiments shape the form all nations in the world except Israel." This is a this column).
and boundaries of debate on every U.S. policy serious difference, especially when there are These are not carefully-picked examples -
matter. war hawks in Washington who want to build such discrepancies appear every day in the
But The Times, the "paper of record," the up support for a massive military effort against Times and thus permeate all major American
paper that sets the entire tone of American jour- all of the countries in the "axis of evil." newspapers and television news outlets.
nalism, is more about preserving popular com- This clearly wasn't an isolated case of bad A common retort to these observations
placency and U.S. hegemony than doing the editing at the Times; even if Khatami had might be "who cares?" American officials cer-
job we rightly expect it to be doing, that is, explicitly clarified himself later is his speech, tainly have more credibility than Iranian offi-
reporting the news. Every day, the Times stating that Israel is an exception to "all nations cials ..." I would refer these doubters to what
applies a double standard when it covers news of the world," the way in which the Times the United States has done in the past.
about American policy and news about "ene- reports that statement is disingenuous and mis- How much should we trust a government
mies" of the United States. leading to readers. The Times could have that continues to thwart efforts to establish an
Let's examine yesterday's Times. Appear- informed its readers just as well by saying international criminal court for fear that some
ing on the front page, accompanied by a photo something to the effect of "Mr. Khatami later of its own officials (or ex-officials) will be
of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami stated that Iran would not seek a peaceful rela- charged like Slobodan Milosevic for war
addressing a massive crowd, is a story head- tionship with Israel." crimes. Or blocks a United Nations probe into
lined "Millions in Iran Rally Against U.S." by The second problem here is that the Ameri- Bill Clinton's cruise missile attack against a
Neil MacFarquhar. In his article, Macfarquhar can newspaper of record is engaged in putting Sudanese pharmaceutical factory, causing
discusses about how Iranians came out in words into the mouths of world leaders in ways untold numbers of Africans to die. Or helped
droves on Monday to protest the United States, that clearly misrepresent what they actually install a brutal military dictatorship in Chile
and specifically George W. Bush's inclusion of said. over the democratically elected Salvadore
Iran in his "axis of evil." Now take a look at the article by James Dao Allende, on Sept. 11 1973. Or gave the green
Early in the story, before it breaks, we're headlined "U.S. Defends Missile Strike, Saying light (and weapons) to Indonesian dictator
treated to the following: "'Our policy is a poli- Attack Was Justified," buried on page A12. Suharto to terrorize and slaughter thousands of
cy of detente,' Mr. Khatami told the throng The lead says: "Senior military officials today civilians in East Timor... Obviously the list
clogging all avenues of Freedom Square in defended a missile attack by a Central Intelli- goes on, but you get the point.
Tehran. 'We intend to have ties and peaceful gence Agency drone over eastern Afghanistan American officials do not need, much less
relations with all nations in the world,' except last week, calling the strike 'appropriate' and deserve, the special treatment they receive
Israel." sharply questioning assertions by Afghans that every day "from the paper of record" but the
Now initially, this might seem fine. Iran has the missile killed as many as three peasants American people need better reporting.
long provided aid to organizations that are who were merely scrounging for scrap metal."
working actively to destroy the Israeli state Here we observe a much different treat- Nick Woomer can be reached at
totally or at least as it now operates. So it isn't ment of American government officials than nwoomer@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
BAMN should learn from
mistakes of past militants
To THE DAILY:
I have spent the beginning of the winter
semester engrossed in the history of the
American Civil Rights Movement of the
1950s and 1960s, through my participation
in the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program's Civil
Rights class (and upcoming trip). After
witnessing last weekend's rally and then
reading further about the Coalition to
Defend Affirmative Action and Integration
and Fight for Equality By Any Means Nec-
essary in Monday's Daily (BAMN defends
purpose, 2/11/02) I feel compelled to
respond to what I see as a gross misrepre-
sentation of the legacy of the struggle for
civil rights.
Reading first-hand accounts of partici-
pants in the original movement, most
notably John Lewis (now a Congressman,
but former leader of the Student Nonvio-
lent Coordinating Committee) and Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr, it is clear that the
strength and success of the American Civil
Rights Movement were due to its leaders'
unshakable belief in nonviolence. From the
Birmingham bus boycotts of 1955, to the
March on Washington for Jobs and Free-
dom in 1963, and through to the Selma,
Alabama protests of 1965, Civil Rights
workers, and especially college students,
stayed true to the precepts of non-violent
"direct action" as the most effective way to
fight segregation and bigotry.
They were not afraid to face firehoses,
dogs, bullets or bombs, because they knew
that in the long run, their lack of violent
response would provide powerful evidence
of racial injustice to both the country and
the world.
The Civil Rights Movement of the
1950s and 1960s achieved huge gains for
the fight for equality - specifically, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. When it began to fall
apart, however, was when it turned
towards violence and militance. The
peaceful marches and protests of the early
implications. In a rally to motivate the
crowd last Friday, which consisted of a
majority of non-University students, Uni-
versity of Tennessee student Dumaka
Shabazz was quoted as saying, "If we have
to destroy some things, we will destroy
some things."
I fail to understand how this mentality
can come from the same group that rallied
in honor of Dr. King last month, without it
being seen as a direct affront to every
belief for which Dr. King lived and died. In
the last speech that he ever delivered, one
day before he was assassinated, Dr. King
said, "It is no longer a choice between vio-
lence and nonviolence in this world: It's
nonviolence or nonexistence." These words
comprise the incredible impact of the Civil
Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s, but
I find them every bit as relevant (if not
more so) today as they were 35 years ago.
BAMN may have labeled its struggle the
"New Civil Rights Movement," but their
militant ideology is lightyears away from
the one that came before.
Socioeconomic and racial inequality are
among the most significant issues that face
America today and BAMN deserves
respect for trying to address them. It is a
shame, though, that they are so short-sight-
ed as to ignore theway that the first Amer-
ican Civil Rights movement lost all
relevance when it turned from nonviolence
to militant radicalism.
JENNIFER NATHAN
LSA freshman
Daily picture did more to
advertise for Nike than
SOLE's golf balls
To THE DAILY:
I have been asked numerous times "what
was up with the golf balls" - in reference to
the Daily's Editorial yesterday, SOLE Sport-
ing Nike? which commented on the fact that
Students Organizing for Labor and Econom-
ic Equality used Nike golf balls Monday on
the Diag. The answer to that question is both
supporting a brutal global economy, not even
SOLE. We can only work daily to change the
system that currently dominates. The Daily
stated that we are not anti-Nike; this is true,
we do not oppose any one corporation. I and
SOLE collectively do stand in opposition to
a global economic system that allows large
multinational corporations to encourage and
campaign for a race to the bottom that
exploits people in the United States and
internationally.
What was lost on the Daily's editorial
page yesterday were the workers in sweat-
shops around the world. Specifically, yester-
day, it was the 215 women and men
currently walking the picket-line in Derby,
New York; people who can tell you the intri-
cacies of stitching the Michigan 'M' while
they explain to you that they simply cannot
feed their children on the salaries being
offered them. They will laugh about stories
of rush orders after we win large sporting
events while chronicling grotesque numbers
of needle punctures - not pricks, but punc-
tures -that go straight through to their
bones.
Itis the global reality that sweatshops are
so pervasive it will be years before we can
all truly be sweatshop-free. The fact that the
Daily chose to run a photo that so promi-
nently displayed the Nike logo on the front
page of its newspaper represents an editorial
decision that did much more to advertise for
Nike than a few golf balls scuttling across
the Diag. This University has an opportunity
and responsibility to be apart of the change
that is to come, as does this editorial page.
JACKIE BRAY,
LSA sophomore
The letter writer is a member of Students Organizing
for Labor and Economic Equality and the United
Students Against Sweatshops Coordinating Committee.
LETTERS POLICY
The Michigan Daly 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
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