4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 26, 2002 OP/ED 40 able £ iiguu &Bcll 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com 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 The bottom line was, 'Ain't no more money, you'll have to wait.'" - Deb Tait, secretary of the Inner City Black Wreckers Association, on the indefinite postponement of the city of Detroit's vacant building demolition program, quoted yesterday in The Detroit News. Loe, w+ll tPPease Le w, te--wni,,i{ e tabianS wii )lc Ai 4-oriAA com o-+ j vq a blood Vlotexic c ,vd ofe. a r The. n .... CWe, L.ilt ap erase e u~bwt \cs wig\J tQ C &4ktX11 e violaace OIA go~0 NO w.. a SAM BUTLER TH ISOAPBOX Questions about unions PETER CUNNIFFE ONE FOR THE ROAD he first time I can remember thinking about labor issues was in middle school, when the workers at Kroger, the grocery store my family had always shopped at, went on strike over wages and benefits. We stopped shopping there and my parents steer clear of it to this day. I got another chance when the long and bitter strike at The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press resulted in the banning of those papers from my home. Both the children of United Auto Workers members, my parents told me that we should support organized labor. I've always agreed with them, believing anions to be a legitimate and essential means for workers to get a fair shake as a collective that they couldn't get from employers by themselves. But while I still believe people have the right to organize and collectively bargain, in the past couple years I've found myself more and more at odds with the goals of many unions and my fel- low liberals who adopt their positions uncritically. The union I've had the most direct experi- ence with is, naturally, the Graduate Employees Organization. I was here for the last GEO strike several years ago and despite my long support of unions, found myself baffled by the demands of student instructors who taught little and, in my experience, did a second-rate job of it at best. Last month another round of contract negotia- tions brought a day long "work action" by GEO in pursuit of childcare no one else gets and yet more money for substandard teaching. I'm sure all those principled students who wouldn't cross the picket line were humming one of those catchy union ditties as they lay in bed. The issue of free trade divided me from many (though not all) union members as well. Free trade is often attacked by unions for transferring jobs, especially good paying industrial jobs, overseas. Growing up around Detroit, I know that is an accurate critique and how hard the waning of an area's big local industry can hit the economic and social fabric of a community. I do sympathize, but communities will adjust and outside of autowork- ers, Americans are better off when they can buy cheaper cars and workers in developing countries where some of the jobs were relocated are getting sorely needed economic opportunities. Recently the U.S. imposed tariffs on steel imports at the behest of steelworkers unions and the swing-state voters in their membership. Nor- mally an ardent free trader, President Bush said this action needed to be taken to prevent the col- lapse of the U.S. steel industry. But why shouldn't an industry collapse if it is no longer competitive? Steelworker unions obviously cared about the jobs of their members, but the funda- mental problem of steel production - like much heavy industry - becoming less and less eco- nomically viable in this country is not going away. The government has only postponed the day of reckoning the steel industry must face while angering our trading partners. Now other manufacturers will have to pay an artificially inflated price for steel and threatened retaliatory tariffs from other countries will hurt our exporters. Another disturbing development is the Team- sters push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that will provide only a trickle of oil years down the road that cannot compete with the foreign gusher. But James P. Hoffa sees a chance to cozy up to George W., like Jackie Press- er with Ronald Reagan. Then, as now, a Teamster chief made a pact with a president openly hostile to unions. Presser did it to fend off investigations into corruption and criminality within the union. What Hoffa is getting from a man who, according to the AFL-CIO, "shows little regard for working families and their unions," remains to be seen. Finally is the problem of teachers unions. I should say up front that I think teachers are, by and large, grossly underpaid. But higher salaries will never be justified to taxpayers if we can't seriously test the achievement of teachers and dump the ones who aren't performing. Tenure, the benefit most fiercely protected by teacher's unions, needs to be done away with. Teachers who can't cut it, or who plod along in mediocrity year after year, have no business teaching. I say this because I firmly believe in the importance of public schools and want to see them improved, especially by attract- ing better teachers with better salaries. I have no doubt most tenured teachers are good teachers, but nothing motivates success like accountability. We grade students because we know accomplishment matters. We should expect the same from teachers. Despite my growing alienation from union stances, I still think unions are important and believe there are many areas of the economy, especially in the service sector, that badly need them. But too many unions have become pro- tectors of the status quo or just politically opportunistic, out of step with the reality around them. The economy is a dynamic force and hanging onto outmoded ideas and indus- tries to provide job security to a few ends up hurting everyone in the long run. Those of us who support unions should not shy away from looking critically at their stances and thinking about not just how union members are affect- ed, but how the rest of us are affected as well. Peter Cunnife can be reached atpcunnffj@umich.edu. West Seven Mile forever DUSTIN J. SEIBERT THE MANIFESTO few weeks ago, upon my return from a spring break in sunny Mexico, I was driving through Detroit on a crisp, sunny day with my window down bumping "Respiration" by Black Star, taking in all the sights that my city has to offer, and I was motivated to write this here column. More importantly, it gives me an opportunity to address a lingering issue that reared its ugly, confused little head back in the beginning of my freshman year ... . What's the deal with all these clowns shit- tin' on Tha D like they do? Every time I turn in another direction, someone else is blasting my city. After some deliberation, I have broken the haters down into three specific categories: There is your average, sheltered, suburbanite whose experience with inner city black folks has probably only been limited to Chris Tucker movies. People in this category make quick and often unfounded conclusions about a city that they have never set foot in. A few years ago, I told a girl from St. Clair Shores that I was from Detroit: Her first response? "Umm, so, like, uhh, do you, like, y'know, umm, live in the part where people get, like, killed a lot and stuff?" It's like her big brother ventured to Greektown once and came home with a "comprehensive" report of the violent areas in the city or something. Next, there are your New York/Chicago/ L.A. natives who won't waste a hot second to tell you how wack Detroit is compared to their hometowns. They have a really bad superiority complex (particularly some of these goddamn New Yorkers), and they like to spend time bitching about how they can't find the clubs, music or restaurants that they have at home. If you have complaints about Michigan, then stay your sorry play-going, latt6-sipping, University jock-riding asses at home and spare us the complaints while you are here, eh? And finally there are the natives of Detroit who can't stand it and wanna be out as soon as humanly possible. I can side with these people, for they know the city and its inner workings, and perhaps they have legitimate reasons to want to leave. If you came up on some money and you wanna get away from Schoolcraft, then I can support a move to West Bitch, Ster- ling Heights or somewhere of that caliber. For me, though, it's more about the people than the city itself. I suppose it's something about niggas being ghetto fabulous that has always inspired me. Only in Detroit will you find cats in front of a gas station trying to sell you a DVD copy of "The Matrix 2." Only in Detroit will you see women walking around with a ridiculous hair- do stretching about half of her full height into the air. Only in Detroit will you find cats walking around in a purple suit with a lime green silk shirt, a brim hat with some poor bird's feather sticking the hell out and the obligatory snakeskin boots (pick a color). Oh, I won't argue the fact that Detroit needs some help on a number of levels. For- mer Mayor Dennis Archer was ranting a;out the rejuvenation of'the city and our niw Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is doing more of the same ... question is, is Kwame blowing smoke as well, or is he going to give Detroit the kick in the ass that it so desperately needs? You see, you can't run Detroit with- out a little gangsta edge. Coleman Young, may he rest in peace, had that edge, but he got old and ornery and he died. Let's see if good ol' Kwame can stand up to city with the necessary cojones. Our schools? They do need some serious help. Though I have not taken a stance either way with affirmative action policies, I think one would have to spend the 13 years that I did in. the public school system to understand the huge discrepancies. Do I think the mighty Cass Tech prepared me for the University? On no level, whatsoever. However, I did make it through to here and I'll be damned if that doesn't account for anything. People always complain about how "frightening" Detroit Pub- lic is, but I'll bet you will never find some "mis- treated" nutjob slaughtering people en masse because someone called him a "loser" a few times ... that's some "suburban-esque" shit that always tends to surprise the hell out of people because they expect something like that to hap- pen in a bad neighborhood. Bottom line is that most people want to make excuses all day about why they have a problem with Detroit, when the fact is that they actually lack the testicular fortitude to step foot south of Eight Mile Road. So we don't make a good substitute for the exciting activity on., Manhattan Island, and you won't find bubbling brooks and green pastures and shit like you would in East Pleasant Gulley Falls, Conn. or somewhere like that, but we got gumption, dammit and that has to account for something. I challenge any non-urban raised, non-black who claims that he is "in touch" with the black community to go hang about in Tha D for a day or two. Go to Hart Plaza during the fireworks. Hit up a couple of rib joints in the city. Give the Mom n' Pop record stores some business. It's not all bad around the way ... just stay on point when you come around and don't act scared, and you should be okay (i.e. the pricks at The Michigan Review probably wouldn't make it out alive). And for the record, bullets will not graze your car when you cross the town border. I suppose that I should just get use to the bad rep, though. It could be worse ... I could be from Long Island. Knowledge. Dustin J. Seibert can be reached at dseibert@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Sept. 11 does not validate the Hollywood empire TO THE DAILY: I was watching the Oscars last night and Tom Cruise was speaking at the beginning of the show about whether, in light of the events of Sept. 11, required every famous and prominent person to stop and ponder whether his work was deeply meaningful. Not only was the answer a unanimous yes, most found their work to be even more impor- tant after Sept. 11. No wonder we're such a cultur- al juggernaut. It's not just the famous; I've heard a lot of peo- ple say the same thing: That Sept. 11 validates is t , xx4! .ti + cia4 k. x t . iic tiw a . s x ,e; .,.a . . yvu ..,c .. >< : :: ::